


the last innocent

by vlushii



Category: DanPlan
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Multi, Or Is he?, Violence, but we live to see it, hosuh is innocent, jay is a tease, kinda confusing plot, lots of gay flirting, maybe sexual tension??, more to add later on, poly-relationships??, protect stephen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:15:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 45,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21593653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vlushii/pseuds/vlushii
Summary: ღೃ* in·no·cent/ˈinəsənt/ : a pure, guileless, or naive personhosuh lee, 24 years old and constantly on the run, people behind his tail.he, one of the few last innocents out running, trying, surviving from this evil cruel worldhe lives in, filled with evil people, monsters.the world, does not deserve hosuh lee.jay ko, 23 years old and probably murdered someone the last minute,decides to visit the very well known underground club— merque, to unwind his stress,maybe with a few drinks or so, not expecting to meet a somewhat like angel withsilvery locks of moonlight and clear blue sky eyes, locking onto his sunset red gaze.
Relationships: Annabelle | Melodify & Hosuh Lee, Hosuh Lee/Stephen Ng, Jay Ko & Hosuh Lee & Daniel Lim & Stephen Ng, Jay Ko/Hosuh Lee, Jay Ko/Hosuh Lee/Stephen Ng, Jay Ko/Stephen Ng, other featured animators
Comments: 78
Kudos: 174





	1. surprise, mikro's cosmos

**Author's Note:**

> — ❝ he doesn't really know what to think when fate had entertwined their paths as sky-blue meets sunset-red.  
> and he doesn't know if it's for the better or for the worse ❞

> _innocent_.

a term to describe a pure, guileless or naive person.

those who should be protected from the harsh cruel world, to not be tainted by any means of sins. to have a pure heart, a gentle hand reaching for kindness, and a moral sense. few angels without a halo, color like angels wings living in this world. easy to trick, easy to fool, manipulate, and _taint._ the world doesn't deserve innocents. 

_the world, does not deserve hosuh lee._

the memory is still vivid to him to this day, he can still feel the faint fast beating of his heart, pounding at his ribcage, and his veins filled with adrenaline. his feet hurt, but he kept pursuing, running and running. he didn't know where he was going, all he knew was to keep running, the faint words of his sister imprinting on his brain, her fresh screams, purely filled with fear: "run, hosuh! run, dont look back!" and so he ran.

as fast as his tiny twig legs could go, he didn't look back. he didn't want to hear the multiple of footsteps running behind him, the shouts of "get him!" followed by yells and grunts of men in black suits, coming to get _him._ at this point in time, he curses upon the goddess up in the night sky, why did he have to come into this world as an _innocent_ , out of all the things. he doesn't know what's so good and privelaged about having to be born as an innocent. you get tricked, lied to, manipulated, and worst of all, being _tainted,_ by filthy hands belonging to disgusting people, all for what? satisfaction and power for outranking someone below them? bullshit.

his legs ached with every step he took and he felt like his heart was going to burst out at any moment. he could still hear the few distant yells echoing into the air from the men running behind him, but it felt like he was in the lead and they were slowing down. quickly, his eyes darted left and right, finding at least a safe spot for him to hide himself briefly, in order to recharge and rest. he dashes towards the right, into a probably very sketchy dark-looking alleyway, crouching and hiding beside one of the dumpsters, holding his breath in both anticipation and from the stench of garbage reeking out. 

he waits for a while, staying in that uncomfortable position until he hears the shouts get louder and the multiple sounding of footsteps running past him and hosuh lets out a breath he didn't know he held in for so long. his eyes were suddenly welling up with tears as he ran a hand across his face, feelings crashing down on him like tidal waves as minute goes by. confusion, anger, despair, he repeatedly just wants to smash his fist, and his head onto the brick wall against him. they have been taking almost everything away from him. the men in suits, who supposedly worked for the goverment, hosuh doesn't know. all he knows or remembers is being very naive and young, when his mother was still around, crouching down in front of him and his sister with a serious gaze. 

from that point on he had been told and warned every single time to go outside wearing long sleeves, to hide his wrists, the mark, perhaps more-so a burden, he was born with, engraved on his wrist, somewhat similar to a tattoo. colored in black ink that can't be removed was a small angel wing, with his initials on it: H. L.

he and his sister was raised with strict rules to never rebel against, nor to be questioned, and having to live their lives with heads kept low. it was only a few months ago, that hosuh had heard the news that these particular men dressed in black suits were knocking against door to door, from across the world, not even asking for permission to be let in, but he heard from people, that they forced themselves into the homes of other people, only to rip people— _innocents_ away from their homes. it didn't do justice, none of this was right.

and so earlier that night hosuh's mother had quickly ushered him and his sister out towards the door. he doesn't know where he was going, neither does his sister, but apparently when asked to his mom, all she would reply was a quick and hectic _"somewhere where we'll be safe."_ and hosuh wanted to believe that was true. that they'd find a place where they'll be safe, forever, that he'll get to live life normally just like every other non-innocent out there, without having men in suits coming out to get them, with his mom, his sister, and his dad from above from the night sky, guarding them with safe open arms. 

oh how naive he was for an innocent. 

his family was now ripped away from him, and the idea of him not being able to ever see them again breaks hosuh in more ways than you could imagine. for all his life, up until now, he has lived 17 years in this harsh cruel world, having to obey others, to never go against anybody, to be kept pure and innocent, and hosuh was tired of that idea.

no, he wanted to fight, to rebel, to stand up for _himself.  
_he didn't care that he was going to be the person to taint himself. 

quietly he walked alone, arms bunching up beside him, holding his body close to himself, to keep himself warm through the cold lonely night air. he never felt so alone that night, until one day he stumbled upon, what seemed to be his only hope, his only chance at surviving. his eyes lit up at the circular sign above him, decorated in flashing bright pink neon lights that flashed on and off, making his eyes hurt. (he never enjoyed having his eyes exposed to bright neon lights) 

obviously, it was a club, and hosuh probably should've gone for a second option, a job that suited him and was probably more _legal,_ but with his luck and little choices with time chasing behind him, this was probably his best bet right now. 

**merque** , the sign read. oddly poetic, once hosuh said it to himself out loud. all he has now is his reputation (which he hopes is good enough for a resume) and to put on a bribing charming smile his mother always cherished about, in order to at least find himself a stable job to work at, to provide him money and at least a safe place to stay, so with a heavy sigh he walked inside the club.

the lights were dimmly lit and hosuh's nose automatically wrinkled at the stench of alchohol he wasn't so used to smelling before. the air was humid, and honestly he preferred choosing his hiding spot beside the dumpster than this as his home. his baby blue eyes wandered over towards a somewhat like bar, where he could see a bulky hunched figure turning his back onto him, cleaning what seemed to be like glasses, yet to acknowledge hosuh's awkward prescence. 

"e-excuse me?" he said, immediately cringing at the way he stuttered. like hell he was going to get a job with such an amazing introduction. 

"club's closing soon, what are ya in for? a drink?" the man's raspy voice said, still not turning around to face hosuh.

"no, uh— i'm not sure if you have room for one more employee?" hosuh said, though it came out more as a question.

the loud cluttering of a glass against the counter made hosuh flinch as the man slowly turned around, stepping forward, away from the glasses, showing his face towards the light. the man was probably in his mid-30's if hosuh can guess correctly. he had somewhat a half untrimmed mustache and ginger hair, messily styled into a manbun.

the man's eyes narrowed. "how old are you?" 

unconciously, hosuh gripped his bunched up, almost torn sweater by the sides anxiously. "17, sir."   
(always treat and welcome people with manners, his mother would always say.)

the man raised an eyebrow. "you aren't even over 18 and you're looking to employ at a _bar?"_ he threw his head back, letting out a loud laugh (which hosuh wasn't quite sure what he was laughing about, or what was so funny) the man calmed down, wiping a tear. "ah, i haven't laughed like that in a while." 

"but i really want to find a job, sir." hosuh's maintaining stubborness was probably coming into play. 

"listen, kid." the man began. "i don't think someone underage is supposed to work somewhere probably people would start questioning. this place isn't exactly all that goody-two shoes for someone who looks like an angel to work in, as you can tell by the spilled alchohol on the floor to my right." he gestured.

"please, i'll do anything!" hosuh blurted out. "i-i—" frantically, hosuh tried to come up with the best bribing offer he could give, his eyes landing onto the sticky, now almost dried up liquor spilled across the floor. "i'll even clean up the mess in here!" 

there was silence, and hosuh wanted to punch himself in the face, though he could spot in the corner of his eye, the man's lips tugging into an amused smirk. "though that offer is very flattering, i'm not that mean to have a 17 year old kid clean up the messes of clumsy overgrown adults in a club." he sighed. "though you are very persistant and stubborn i have to admit, and that attitude is hard to find nowadays in people looking for jobs." 

"i'm sorry if this is a bit of a personal question," the man stated. "but why are you looking for a job at the age of 17? shouldn't you be asleep in bed right now— or i don't know, cramming your head with math equations for exams?" 

hosuh hesitated. should he tell him the truth? would he immediately get pinned against the wall with no defenses at all and be sent to face the same fate with his mother and sister? his lingering awaiting silence told the man no more, as he heard the man sigh once again. "it's fine, you don't have to tell me when you're not ready to. though if you _are_ going to work here, we're going to have to set some rules, between you and i." his tone lowered into a hushed and serious tone, sending chills down hosuh's spine. 

eagerly, hosuh nodded his head. 

✩°̥࿐୨୧

jay ko, 23 years old, out scouting for a safe place for him to relax his mind, after a long hard day of being a completely normal and non-sketchy business man in some fancy company he probably can't pronnounce the name right. is, what you would've expected from the appearance of the messy blonde on the streets of a cloudy dark night, the typical occupation for a man in his early 20's is what jay ko _wants,_ you to believe in. dressed from black to toe, in a fancy suit and grumbling under his breath as he tried to clean the _mess_ on his white shirt underneath his tux, loosening his tie a bit. 

relax, he tells himself.

he stumbles upon a shop, more so a club, considering that it's open past midnight, the bright flashy pink neon lights glaring at his eyes that read: **merque**.

at this point, jay doesn't really want to picky this time, like he normally is. he decides to spare this tiny club a bit of mercy, after all, usually when he doesn't like something, a snap of his fingers can prove the real damage he can do, and he doesn't really want to face with the difficult consequences and shrieks of disappointment and disbelief from his.. "business partners". he's just here to unwind from the stress and forget about the whole day, as if nothing happened with a few drinks or so.

with a heavy and reluctant sigh, he pushed the door open, only to lightly growl at the even more blaring neon lights from the ceilings, constantly flashing on and off, waving them ridiculously around. one step in, and jay already wants to leave, though surprisingly, he manages to supress his ticking temper down, easily dodging the bodies that were pushed towards him. the club was _really,_ crowded, though he didn't expect much from a tiny club that was open at past midnight for people in their 20's or 30's to unwind from stress, just like him. but if one person manages to lay a _single_ finger on his suit, he's going to snap, he swears to himself under his breath. 

he finally manages to locate the bar, pinpointing the location as he awkwardly shifts against bodies of women who wore obviously too tight outfits, their annoyingly high pitched giggles making him irritated by the second, wanting to roughly push away any girl that was thrown towards his direction. the bar, he tells himself sternly. _focus._

he makes his way, feet almost trudging from the long and irritating route he had to take to get here. the drinks better be worth it or he's about to blow this whole club down with a snap of his fingers. he finally looks up, only to find his eyes staring _way_ too long at the petite small boy behind the bar, offering drinks to other people, his silvery strands of hair tucked behind his ear, while the rest of his moon-like locks were tied into a low ponytail, face glowing from the neon lights flashing on his face, painting his skin milky-moonlight. 

jay doesn't even know how long he's been staring for until his sunset-red eyes locked onto the bright baby blue eyes that lingered on his. he isn't sure how to describe it, but it's as if the bartenders eyes lit up into a smile before the corner of the boy's pink lips could curve up into a small grin. "anything i can get you?" his soft voice evens out the loud blaring noise of heavy dubstep music in the background of the night club.

"uh— yeah." jay shakes his head, taking a seat in front of the angel-like bartender. "what do you recommend?" he asked, wanting to hear more of the soft-feathery like voice of the silver boy in front of him. 

"well, i'd technically recommend the whole menu to make myself earn more money, but if it's a recommendation you want, it's the _surprise._ " the bartender said, his gaze never leaving jay's.

"an odd name for a drink, but sure, i'll go with it." he says in a smooth voice, resting his palm underneath his chin and giving a somewhat lazy cheshire smile he rarely even gives to his business partners. 

the bartender next, then literally giggles, and holy fuck jay thinks his ears might be blessed by a fairy that laughs like bells ringing in his ears. 

"charming, but the drink isn't called a surprise, sir. i'm recommending you a drink i won't tell you the name or give a description of, _that's the surprise._ " 

"oh?" jay raises an eyebrow. " _chérie_ , if it's the element of surprise that's an ingredient of the drink, then i'll be glad to be the one getting surprised. live up to my expectations then maybe i'll give you more than a tip, considering that your pretty face already has me swooned." he practically purrs. 

the bartender, already turning away from him, waves a hand at jay, whose eyes are hungrily drinking the outline of the bartender's body, tracing over his curves. "then i suggest you close your eyes for the surprise, sir." 

jay lets out a soft chuckle, complying easily, closing his eyes and focusing on the clinker sounds of glasses rather than the loud blasting music in his eardrums. a loud clatter sound of glass setting in front of him against the counter made his sunset-red eyes flutter back open, eyes glimmering in amusement at the peachy-pink colored drink that was fizzing with bubbles and at the top, a bright yellow slice of lemon sitting on the brim of the glass. "enjoy, sir." the bartender then winks, before turning over to the other people beginning to sit down a few seats beside him, taking their orders. 

he bites the inside of his lip, a bad habit of his as he twirls the bright red thin straw around the glass, fiddling it with his fingers. he brought the straw into his mouth, slightly bummed out by the dreading thought of wanting to talk to the bartender more, though his thoughts vanished as a wave of sweet and slight sour crashed onto his tongue and he had to let go of the straw he didn't know he bit into, letting out a sharp sigh. _wow,_ this drink was more powerful than what he had ever come across.

"how's the surprise?" the familiar soft voice tickled his ears and jay looked up to face the crystal blue eyes boring into his. 

"a surprise indeed," jay says, already feeling a bit light-headed from the overpowering liquor, the warm drink slithering down his throat, heat pooling in his stomach. "you've already knocked me off my feet, darling." 

the bartender raised an eyebrow, lips still tugged into a small smile. "by that, you mean the drink or myself?" 

"what if i were to say it was a little bit of both?" jay said, a smirk in his voice.

"i'm flattered." and jay's eyes lit up with delight upon seeing the faint pinkish hue forming on the tip of the bartender's ears, slightly covered by the silvery locks of moonlight. 

"should i ask for your name or do you enjoy being called sweet petnames?" jay continues, taking a small sip of the drink. 

"sir, i don't think it would be safe for me to disclose my personal information. i am merely a bartender struggling to get by with the little amount of money i have." the bartender says, resting his elbows onto the counter, leaning forward towards jay and it was bold to assume that he wansn't holding his breath from the close interaction between him and the silver-haired angel. "i'm full of surprises, so you'd think twice before getting to know me." the bartender's voice lowers into a soft hushed whisper, almost making jay want to drink in more of his sweet fragrant prescence.

the bartender, with a smirk, quickly wheeled back in, leaving jay leaning forward towards the counter with a surprised expression. it makes him let out a soft chuckle at the messy blonde's lost puppy face, though the blonde quickly regains his posture, coughing into his hand. "a pretty bartender like you shouldn't be struggling to get by with the little amount of money you don't deserve." he says, loosening his tie a bit more before digging into his pocket, whirling a white long envelope between his long bony fingers and jay's now reddened lips tug into a smirk upon seeing the quick flash of amusement on the bartenders face. 

"here, pretty boy." he says, extending the white envelope towards the bartender, using his hand and pushing it towards him, the envelope sliding with ease against the black marble counter. 

the bartender stands there in shock, his blue eyes still locked on the white envelope, making jay let out a chuckle, returning to his drink. he'll give the boy a bit of time to proccess what's going on, with that sweet precious look of surprise in his eyes, it makes jay's sunset eyes glimmer in satisfaction, and he takes a moment to appreciate the pure and delicate features of the boy's face. eyes that were slightly slanted, with long eyelashes decorating the rim of his baby blue eyes, a small button nose, along with small cauliflower shaped ears. jay's eyes then trail down towards the bartenders slightly parted lips, a bit too focused on the soft pink lips that almost seemed to glint back at him underneath the flashing lights.

"what's the catch?" the voice of the bartender snaps jay out of his thoughts. 

"what catch, darling?" 

the bartender crosses his arms, as if it were an act of trying to be intimidating, it didn't work on jay. "obviously a fancy guy like you coming to a night club past midnight just to order a drink and flirt with a bartender then to hand him a chunk of money when he's talked to him for only 30 minutes isn't really how you should be making deals, sir." 

jay hums, finishing the rest of his drink, taking his time to answer. "pretty with brains, i like you." he grins. "tell you what, if you're so persistant in questioning about me innocently handing you a chunk of money, repay me with those elements of surprise drinks you make." 

"that's it?" the bartender asks, though his tone is slightly wavering, as if not believing his words.

jay nods, wetting his reddened lips with a swipe of his tongue, watching eagerly as the bartender reaches out a slim pale hand towards the extended white envelope slid upon the black counter. suddenly his sunset red eyes widened for a split second, a hand abruptly reaching out to grasp the bartender's slim ones. and jay doesn't miss the way the bartender's blue eyes flashed in alarm, trying to pry his wrist off of jay, though his steel grip proved to be harder to do so. 

"should i wait for you to give an explanation or should i want to keep this counter between me and your intentions?" the bartender asks in a calm tone, once soft blue eyes hardening into an icey cold hard stare. 

"and what would you think my intentions would be with you, mon cher?" he retorts back, his voice lowering into a soft yet dangerous tone, making sure to drag each syllable by the tongue, enjoying the way he could easily read the bartender's emotions behind his blue eyes.

"i'd like to think of only good things." the bartender quickly pipes up and suddenly jay feels an almost sharp prick against his neck. his eyes slowly lowered down, lips tugging into a smirk noticing the small knife that glinted in the light, pressing gently against his adam apple that bobbed up and down as he swallowed. 

"my my, thinking of hurting me, lovely? wouldn't that get you in trouble? after all, i could easily take that exchange of money lying in front of you right now." jay says, tone unwavering as if a dangerous sharp weapon wasn't about to slit his throat open. "but if you want to play with danger, darling, i'll be glad to play with you." 

the bartender's breath hitches as the small dagger in his hands was quickly torn away from him, and now he was left defenseless, and with a sharp weapon pointed towards him. "now, now." the messy blonde in front of him says in a low voice. "i wouldn't dream of hurting a pretty boy like you, but you should know a man like me is full of surprises, just like you." the silver haired boy manages to surpress a whimper from his parted lips as the sharp weapon was dragged gently across his throat, to jaw, to chin. "you should think twice of pointing a weapon at a dangerous man like me." 

jay enjoys the few last moments of the pure fear flashing in the bartender's baby blue eyes, before letting go of his chin with the sharp dagger.

"thank you." the bartender replies, almost as if letting out a breath of relief. "but i would appreciate it if you didn't crush my wrist with your iron grip." 

upon realising, jay slowly retracts his fingers away from the bartender's slim wrist, slightly disappointed at the warmth beginning to disappear from his fingertips as he let go. the silver haired boy is quick to retract his own wrist away, slowly rubbing his hand against it, eyes still trained on jay's whose eyes were too busy focusing on the bartender's covered up wrist. it was unmistakable, the mark on the bartender's wrist, even if jay were to say that, with his eyes heavy and mind light with the liquor he just downed. 

"would you like anything else to drink?" the bartender's voice broke through his thoughts once more, uncomfortably noticing the lingering silence between the two and the blonde's sunset red gaze locked onto his wrist. _surely he hadn't seen, right?_

jay's eyes darted back up to the bartender who seemed to shift nervously, hiding his arms behind his back, leaning far away from him, against the opposite counter. jay's eyes momentarily flashed a wave of guilt before he shook his head. he probably scared the boy a bit too much, perhaps it'd be best if he'd leave while he can, perferably not wanting to crash his car while he was still drunk. "no, that will be all, thank you." he says with a soft sigh, standing up.

"though, if i'm not allowed to make such a request of asking your name, what should i call you in the meantime when i see you around again, _angel?"_ he purrs.

he doesn't miss the way the bartender's tongue quickly darts out to wet his soft pink lips that were slightly parted. " **gloss**." he softly said. "and _you_ , sir?" 

"perhaps another time," he hums, the bright neon lights no longer being a distraction to him, now that the silver-haired angel was in front of him. "if you'd understand i'm a dangerous man full of surprises." he lets out a small chuckle.

"okay, mister _surprise_." the bartender taunts out, making jay let out a small genuine grin. "i'll see you around?" 

"definitely, gloss." he breathes out, enjoying the way the name easily rolls off his tongue. 

the final fond gaze locked between sky-blue and sunset-red and jay said his farewell, turning around and throwing his coat over his body, making his way back through the now less crowded area, exiting the door and letting out a sigh, watching as his breath curled up into a small cloud before slowly disappearing into the cold night air. he didn't really want to believe what he just saw, what he just encountered, but it was definitely not mistaken.

_jay had found the last innocent._


	2. home is where i'm in your arms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> — ❝ a leading of misunfortunate events  
> and chaos striking, but at least the two are reminded of  
> where their home lies in: each other's arms. ❞

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !! WARNING: this chapter is way too long lol but hope you enjoy <3

> the second time jay visits merque, he isn't alone.

"oh would you lighten up already?" jay says, keeping his gaze fixed on the road, though in the corner of his eyes its clear to see in his peripheral vision, a very sulky male looking out the window from beside him. 

"you practically dragged me against my own will." the other male complained, finally flickering his eyes, violet, towards the messy blonde. "i didn't even wanna come here in the first place." he huffs, turning back to the window and pressing his knuckle against his face, nervously gnawing at his already trimmed fingernails.

"i told you it would be worth it, believe me, first time i entered the club i wanted to step right back out but a certain someone made me stay, and i'm sure they'll make you want to stay just as much as i do." jay replies, briefly glancing sideways at the tuff of messy violet hair, crowned on top of the male's head, curly violet locks slightly covering his forehead. 

"stop chewing on your fingernails, it's gross." he murmurs, turning his eyes back onto the road, slowing down the car and pulling up the reverse gear, slowly swerving a few times back and forward until he parked the car _perfectly_ between the two visible white lines painted onto the road of the driveway. he turns to face the purple-haired male beside him, letting out a sigh as he realised said male had no intention of listening to him at all. "want my fingers instead?" 

the male beside him finally turns around with wide eyes, face noticeably flushing pink at jay's remark. "shut up!" he hisses, shooting daggers with his eyes at the messy blonde whose lips slanted into a small smirk. "my god, i hate you." purple-hair mutters, aggressively punching at the unlock lever at the car door, and jumping out, brushing his outfit down.

he had just briefly changed. originally, he had a black hoodie on, typical of what he wears everyday when going out to do 'business.' though he was being yelled at by jay, handful of words and dragged by the ear to go change in the bathroom to be somewhat presentable for where they were heading. 

"hey, i'm not the one with the dirty mind here." jay says with a loud voice from the opposite side of the car, slamming the door shut. 

"would you keep your voice down?" the purple haired male says, words forcibly gritted out from his teeth. "we're in _public_ for christ sake, i'm not ready for exhibitionism yet." 

"you always do when we're alone though." jay says, coming around from the opposite side of the car to meet up with the purple haired male who just continued glaring at him. 

"i'm literally going to stab you in one of these dark alleyways if you don't stop." 

jay just merely shrugged, softly sighing once again, fondly glancing at how his breath clogged up into a small cloud, similar to what he'd seen a few days before when he left merque. "i've already been threatened by that offer, i don't think that's going to do anything." 

"what?" the purple haired male raises an eyebrow in disbelief. "who, by daniel?" 

jay shakes his head, chuckling. "the person who you're about to meet, technically first time we met, long story short— knives were involved." he slightly swivels his head towards the purple haired male, stuffing his hands in his pockets, giving a slanted smile. "that's why i dragged you here, _stephen,_ i think you two would get along." 

the purple haired male—stephen— is still staring at jay in disbelief, eyes slightly widened. "holy shit, i gotta meet this dude." he laughs, and for a split second you could see jay's soft fond smile he rarely gives to anyone. "this infamous guy, threatening you with a knife? at _the_ jay ko? unbelievable." 

"well, introduce yourself to him. maybe then you'll get an infamous introduction from the boy with knives as well, just the way you like it." jay jokes, already stepping forward, leading the way as stephen cautiously followed from behind.

jay reaches towards the door, ignoring the way little beams of strobe lights from inside the club flashed through the small window of the door. he pushed the door with one of his shoulders, turning towards stephen, who was catching up behind him. "he's the one behind the bar." he says, stepping in and immediately the nostalgic scent of pure alchohol hits his nose and immediately jay's sunset-red eyes were trained across the large crowd in the room, trying to spot the bar, to spot at least a single strand of silver in the air.

"hey, is that him?" he felt a nudge against his shoulder (stephen), and flickered his eyes where stephen's gaze landed. 

it was him. the innocent with silver hair, currently serving drinks to people behind the bar and oh how jay missed that sweet small smile on his soft pink lips. "yeah, that's him." jay breathes out, almost dreamily and stephen from beside him casts a weird look, before stepping forwards and ditching jay alone in the crowd, heading for the bar.

stephen wanted to see if this boy with silver hair really _did,_ try to threaten jay with a knife, if so, that probably earned half of his respect already, for someone to be this oblivious or for someone to be brave as balls to confront _the_ jay ko. the silver haired bartender finally looks up and for a split second stephen is taken back by how crystal clear his baby blue eyes were, boring right into his dark violet ones.

"would you like anything to drink, sir?" the boy from behind the bar asks, voice soft and smooth as silk and stephen almost feels like he's being lulled to sleep with a lullaby. 

stephen shook his head, away from his thoughts as he takes a seat, perferably away from the other drunk people sitting next to him. "sorry, i don't drink." he mutters beneath his breath and he could feel the bartenders questioning stare on him, and stephen just wants jay to get his ass here to break the ice, because as if you couldn't already tell, he's bad at starting conversations.

" _hello, gloss._ " the familiar deep voice from beside him speaks and stephen looks up to see the messy blonde sitting down beside him. 

"hello, _mister surprise_." the bartender speaks, and stephen looks at them like they're speaking in a universal language he's never heard about before. _really?_ they were going to flirt right in front of his salad? on this night? and what the hell was up with these mystery names? 

"this is my friend." jay says, gesturing a shoulder towards stephen. "gloss, stephen. stephen," jay introduces, and stephen could tell how lost jay became in the bartender's blue ocean eyes. "meet gloss, the bartender who i've met a few nights ago with knives involved." and stephen could hear the soft airy laugh from the bartender.

"i'm really sorry about what happened that night when we met." the bartender apologizes, sincerity lacing with his voice.

"it's fine." jay waves a hand. "a dangerous man like me likes to face the unpredictable. meetings like those make a very long-lasting impression, so i would say i don't think i'm forgetting you anytime soon, gloss." 

"would you like anything to drink?" silver haired boy asks, smiling.

"another one of your surprises?" jay asks, raising an eyebrow, seemingly more of a request than a question.

"are you gonna hand me another chunk of money or is this just a one-time thing?" the bartender laughs, before turning away and reaching for one of the small glasses on top of the shelves. 

"you handed him money? seriously?" stephen asks, turning to jay now that he had eavesdropped on their conversation too intently.

"honestly wasn't that much, but yeah. oh, don't give me that look, i'm a grown man i can do whatever i want with my money, unlike _some_ people." jay says, almost hissing at the second to last word of his sentence, making stephen roll his eyes, biting the inside of his cheek in annoyance.

"sounds like you two get along very well." the bartender says, placing down a glass that swirled with bright violet liquid, the color somewhat matching stephen's hair right now. the neon lights over them made the drink look almost angelic, with the way it sparkled and glinted a few times before disappearing. 

"we don't." stephen is quick to reply, though his eyes were glued onto jay who twirled the bright blue star in between his fingers, before taking it in his mouth. he was curious, about what it would taste like and what jay's reaction would be. normally, stephen doesn't like drinking alchohol unlike jay, but at times like this he's kind of curious how good the bartender's skills in making drinks will make jay impressed. as if on cue, jay releases the straw from his mouth, body and shoulders tensing a bit as he lets out a sharp sigh. 

"is it good?" the purple haired boy raises an eyebrow.

"try it for yourself." jay says, fingers wrapping around the glass before letting go and sliding it against the black marble counter towards stephen's direction. his eyes followed the glass's movement as it slid closer towards him and hesitantly, he reached his slim fingers around the glass, gravitating it towards his body, dark violet eyes staring down at the bright purple liquid that gleamed at him underneath the strobe lights.

"it's not an alcoholic drink, so don't worry." stephen looks up to see the bartender staring down at him with soft eyes and in his hands was a small baby blue blanket, oddly resembling the color of the silver haired boy's eyes as he cleans the glasses before re-stocking them up upon the shelves. 

"you remember.." stephen mutters underneath his breath unconciously as he takes the straw in his mouth, taking a small sip.

immediately his taste buds are hit with a massive wave of bitter-sweetness, the drink oddly tasting like grapes and he has the same reaction as jay, quickly letting go of the straw in between his lips and tensing before letting out an even more sharper sigh. "it sure tastes like alchohol.." stephen says, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

it makes jay chuckle and the purple drink between his fingers is now gone. "he's a big baby." 

"says you!" stephen retorts, rolling his tongue inside his mouth trying to get rid of the addicting bitter-sweet taste on his taste buds. 

"do you want some water?" the bartender asks, with genuine concern in his voice and suddenly he feels guilty for an unknown reason.

stephen feels his face flush and at this moment he thanks the obnoxiously annoying strobe lights flashing pink against his face, that was hiding his faint pinkish hue forming on his cheeks, tinting the strands of his violet hair styled into a messy mowhawk, bright purple. he nods slightly, a bit embarrassed for coming to a _bar,_ just to only drink water, but he's thankful that the bartender treats him gently and with care and remembers and notices the smallest details of stephen, which makes his heart melt into a warm gooey mess. 

a few seconds later, the bartender returns with a small cold waterbottle in his tiny hands and stephen says "thank you" in a hushed voice, gently taking the waterbottle between the silver haired boy in his owns, and a small spark of electricity shot between him and the bartender as their fingers briefly brushed against each other. it makes both stephen and the bartender equally stunned as they flinched back. 

"chemistry between you two already i see." jay pipes up from beside them, downing his drink down quickly. 

"shut up." stephen bites a remark back, though he could hear the faint giggling of the bartender from across the counter, _obviously_ laughing at jay's unfunny joke. 

jay lets out a chuckle before standing up abruptly making stephen almost lurch out of his seat in confusion. "are we leaving already?" were they only going to stay for a little amount of time or had time really flown this fast? jay turns his head around, his sunset-red eyes glinting in amusement as they bored into his dark violet orbs. "getting attached already? just as i would've thought." he sneers and stephen wants to punch him already.

"realax," jay tells him, and he could probably tell that he looks pissed off by the way his eyebrows are bunched up angrily, an obvious sign that stephen was pissed. "i'm just going to the bathroom." he informs, before turning towards the bartender. "which is where exactly?" 

"opposite of the room, towards the right." the bartender replies and for a split second this wave of realisation hits stephen when the neon blue light flashes onto the bartender, painting his silver hair into an angelic glow—holy shit stephen was going to be left _alone_ with the silver haired boy. internally, he starts panicking because of _course,_ this is jay's tactic of making stephen talk to the bartender more, stephen's probably sure jay doesn't even _need_ to use the bathroom for god's sake, that little shit, he is so getting his nails removed one by one when he gets back, stephen swears to himself under his breath when he feels the gaze of the bartender on him.

dark violet meets crystal blue. 

instantly the bartender's lips curved into a tiny smile and stephen is positive that shouldn't have made his heart do somersaults on the inside. "how's the drink?" the silver haired boy asks, resting his elbows on the counter and stephen suddenly feels light-headed. "it's.. interesting." he says, not sure what to say, mostly because he only had one sip and he doesn't want to hurt the fragile-looking boy's feelings by saying it was bad or anything. 

"well i mean, it _is_ a surprise." the bartender says, a small laugh in his voice. "honestly, the drink oddly resembles you, sir _stephen."_

said male raises an eyebrow questioningly. "you're kidding." but upon seeing the bartender's smile growing wider by the second he knows that the boy wasn't bluffing. "that's why the drink is purple?"

the silver haired boy shrugged. "well yes, but how did the drink taste?"

"tastes bitter-sweet, for a non-alcoholic drink, why?" stephen asks, beginning to lean in from his seat to get closer to the bartender.

"resembles you." his voice lowers into a soft whisper and suddenly stephen feels himself falling into an unknown world consumed by the silver haired boy's bright blue eyes that softly reminded him of ocean waves. 

"care to explain, petal?" stephen says, lowering his voice into a whisper as well, eyes heavy as he notices the slight change in the bartender's expression from the unintentional pet name slipped out of his lips. 

"you're bitter on the outside. like sharp and mean and prickly to anyone but on the inside you're really just sweet and soft." the silver haired boy explains.

"you pay a lot of attention for someone who isn't worth your time." stephen mutters underneath his breath, not expecting the bartender to actually hear his words, followed by a wave of hurt in his ocean eyes.

"of course you're worth my time." the bartender murmurs, gently reaching a hand towards stephen, who looks up at the silver haired boy. "i enjoy talking to you." the bartender continues, gently wrapping his small fingers around stephen's. the music that used to blare in the background didn't seem to matter anymore and neither did the strobe lights that painted over the couple at the bar, a light angelic glow over the two as they were lost in each others eyes. 

just as stephen was about to say something cheesy and embarrassing he would regret later, a loud clinking of a glass was slammed against the black marble counter, making stephen glare over towards the direction of the sound, and the bartender quickly retracted his hands away from stephen, flinching. 

it was a man in his mid-30's, wearing a suit, his tie very noticeably wrinkled and a few buttons of his top were undone, his cheeks visibly flushing red from the amount of alcohol he drunk. by the way he was firmly gripping around the glass, stephen could tell that the already drunk man wanted to have a refill, but the bartender wasn't having it as his baby blue eyes flashed towards stephen's violet ones in silence, as if promising him that he'd be back shortly and stephen could only follow the boy with his eyes anxiously as he approached the drunk man. 

"sir, i'm sorry but if i remember correctly, you had already drank 3 glasses. we have a strict policy here that no person in the club could have more than 3 drinks." the silver haired boy gently explains, nearing the drunk man cautiously. 

"i didn't come here to a bar just to be chased away, i came to a bar to drink, so that's what i'm here for." the drunk man's low voice slurred as his body seemed to wave back and forth. geez, how much did this man drink? 

"i'm really sorry," the bartender apologizes again and stephen already feels pissed off at how the silver haired boy has nothing to apologize for, yet he's already saying the word 'sorry' twice. "but if anybody were to drink any more than 3 glasses, we can't ensure the safety of you yourself or the people around you, please understand." the silver haired boy's blue eyes desperately searched for empathy in the drunk man's pitch black ones. 

the bartender lets out a small startled gasp as he feels the collar of his shirt being roughly tugged forward and suddenly the wave of stenching alchohol hit, making him wrinkle his nose in disgust. "sir, please let go." he demands in a loud tone, but it was as if his plea was heard silent by the drunk man who just continued to shake him roughly. "i said, i came here to a bar to drink, not to be chased away!" the drunk man says, raising his voice and it makes the bartender's ears hurt.

" **i suggest you let go of him, sir, while i'm still in the mood to ask nicely.** " 

both the bartender and the drunk man's heads turned towards the new voice and the silver haired boy breathes out a small sigh of relief when seeing the familiar messy blonde hair emerging out from the crowds, though it's weird, he notices: the blonde's sunset-red eyes are different now that his eyes oddly split into 2 different colors, bright angry red and alarming yellow and it makes the bartender slightly confused, though he's more desperate to be let go than to question what happened to the blonde's eyes. 

"and what if i don't?" the drunk man huffs, a low gruff in the edge of his voice. "it isn't any of your business." 

"technically, it is." jay says, stepping forward, hands tucked in his pockets. "you're harrassing my friend and i suggest you let go of him while you still have your right hand to do so." he threatens, lowering his voice.

but the drunk man just laughs loudly and that was the last straw for jay as he swiftly reaches for the small knife from the other side of the bar, fiddling it a few times in his fingers before roughly slamming it down onto the black marble counter that slid a bit, dangerously close and in between the small gap of the man's right hand fingers. the laughter died down in the air and so did the sassy remarks of the drunk man, just eerie silence and the slowly paling face of the man. 

"leave." jay says in a dark voice. "before i do worse things to your hand." 

that seemed to do the trick, as the man frantically nodded and dropped the bartender to the ground, whose hands immediately found itself to his neck, rubbing at the soreness. in the corner of jay's multi-colored eyes he could see the silver haired boy's ocean eyes that once filled with fear, slowly morphing into a soft glint of gratefulness. the drunk man hurridly walks past them, not before roughly shoving jay by the shoulder and the blonde feels the struggle to hold himself to the ground, closing his eyes briefly and trying to breathe in the humid air to wash away his rising temper. 

"are you okay?" jay asks, turning his attention quickly towards the bartender, gently stepping forward in order not to alarm the boy any further. thankfully, the boy's response was a nod without hesitance, which makes jay release a small sigh of relief, before turning to stephen, who alarmingly is just staring at the black marble counter in front of him, eyes wide with fear as his body remains frozen and tense.

"stephen," jay whispers, gently nudging him on the shoulder. "are you okay?" 

the purple haired male doesn't even seem to acknowledge jay's prescence, or what happened just now, but jay could clearly see stephen's shoulder beginning to slightly shake and he knew this wasn't going to end well. he quickly turned towards the bartender who was also looking at stephen with concern in his baby blue eyes. "i'm sorry." jay began, but the bartender cut him off before he could finish his sentence. "no, it's okay, i understand. take care of him first, i can take care of myself from here, thank you." and jay has never felt so grateful for someone to be this understanding as he flashes the silver haired boy a final fond smile, the bartender doing the same as his ocean eyes that were filled with worry trailed after the pair who were beginning to disappear within the crowd. 

"breathe." jay sternly mutters to stephen as he guides him through the crowd, almost as if he were shielding the taller boy from the obnoxious people who paid no attention to parting the way for them. 

they exited the club and jay quickly pulls stephen's wrist by his hand in a hurried manner as he unlocked the car that welcomed them back with a soft beeping sound, along with the flash of yellow lights. jay gently pushed stephen down on the passenger's seat and spared a worried glance at the boy who just curled his feet to his chest as he shut the door and quickly jumped in the seat beside stephen and locking the door, not bothering to turn on the car engine. 

"stephen." jay calls out, watching carefully at the purple haired boy whose eyes seemed to have a hard time finding his multi-colored orbs, but once they did, jay gently reaches a hand towards stephen's rubbing his thumb over stephen's hand in silent reassurance. "hey, talk to me, what's wrong?" 

stephen sucks in a sharp breath that only makes jay look more concerned at him. "i don't—" he doesn't know how to begin without breaking down in the middle of his sentence. "i couldn't-couldn't protect him." he mutters under his breath, the brimming of tears beginning to be harder to hold as he bites his lip to fight the urge not to cry. 

jay says nothing, only looking at stephen with soft reassuring eyes and stephen feels slightly calmed down as his dark violet ones laced with distressed found itself lost in jay's sunset-red ones. he tries beginning again, taking in a deep shaky breath. "i'm sorry, i don't know what happened.. what would've happened if you didn't come in time. what would've happened if i couldn't protect him." his voice beginning to betray him as the longer he continued, the shakier his sentences would become.

"why is it—why is it that i can't protect people? i can't even protect her, what—why did i think i could protect _him?"_ stephen's eyes began to feel wet as he desperately tried searching for an answer in jay's eyes, who gently pulls him into his embrace and this time, stephen doesn't resist. the warm body of jay and his soft heartbeat he could hear thumping against his ears, stephen finally lets it out, sobbing into jay's shoulder, wetting his sweater as jay gently rubs his back up and down in silence.

"it's okay." jay says in his soft soothing voice, hoping it would make stephen calm down, tangling his fingers into stephen's messy purple locks, gently massaging his neck in comfort. "it's okay." he repeats until stephen's ragged breathing finally comes to a halt. jay softly cups his hands around stephen's flushed pink cheeks, gently pulling him away from his embrace and jay feels his heart shatter once seeing stephen's nose beginning to tint red from crying, his eyelashes wet with crystal clear tears and his eyes looked so red and tired, eyelids beginning to already puff up. 

"you did your best." jay murmurs, lowering stephen's head down and planting a soft kiss on stephen's forehead. stephen's own fingers found itself tangling around jay's as he finally looks up, melting in between jay's fingers that were cupped around his cheeks. "i could've done more.." stephen mumbles, voice almost inaudible and he feels his throat beginning to ache. 

"no." jay says in a firm voice that makes stephen look back up at the blonde. "you did your best, okay?" his sunset-red eyes melting into stephen's dark violet ones. "shut up." jay interrupts as he notices stephen beginning to defend his statement by opening his mouth and it makes stephen close his mouth shut. "i don't want to hear you blame yourself any longer, especially when it's something you can't control."

and just when stephen is about to open his mouth again, jay gently silences him with his own lips and he feels stephen's shoulder tense a bit before relaxing and melting into the soft kiss that was only filled with pure love and gentle reassurance. the familiar addicting bitter-sweetness invades stephen's tongue from jay's mouth and he feels his heartbeat slowly calming down, despite the fact that his face is against anothers, drowning in each other's scent and prescence and only tasting each other, neither of them wanting to leave the kiss.

jay eventually pulls back, soft sunset-red eyes gleaming back towards stephen in the dark and it makes stephen unconciously smile softly back at him. at times like these, he's grateful for jay, who sometimes is an ass who loves to tease him, jay's probably the only person who knows stephen better than himself, and that's what makes stephen knows what home feels like, to be in jay's warm arms, it feels like stephen's home.

"you okay?" jay asks, gently rubbing a finger against stephen's face, wiping away the wet streams of dried tears running along stephen's flushed cheeks. "i'm okay." stephen replies back, taking in a shaky breath once again and circling his fingers around jay's wrist in silence, a way of thanking jay for helping him through his breakdown without using words, because a warm loving gesture from stephen already says enough about how grateful he feels towards the blonde. 

"but i saw something earlier and i wasn't sure if i had seen it correctly." stephen mutters, changing the subject and he could sense jay's questioning stare lingering on him, waiting for an explanation. "the bartender," he begins, hesitating, though jay's warm silent gaze urges him to continue. "i saw the mark on his arm, it couldn't be, right?" stephen whispers.

jay lets out a sigh that stephen knows too well it didn't mean good news. "i actually saw that too, when i first met him." and stephen looks at him with disbelief. 

"i didn't tell you because i knew you'd say something along the lines of me being drunk and imagining things, like you always say." jay says quickly, before stephen could even open his mouth. 

"so it's true then? he's one of the few last innocents?" 

"i want to believe he's not.." jay trails off, eyes looking away. "but apparently so, yes, he is."

"what do we do now?" stephen asks, gently cupping his hands between jay's face, the same gesture the blonde did to him a few minutes ago, a familiar gesture of warm reassurance for one another and jay melts into stephen's gentle touch. "i don't know.." the blonde mutters, closing his eyes tiredly.

"it's okay." stephen mumbles, gently raising jay's lowering head up, and leaned in, gently brushing his forehead against jay's own. "we'll figure it out, and we'll protect him, okay?" stephen says, his warm violet eyes as dark as the night bored into jay's sunset-red ones. "okay." jay finally agrees, bringing the purple haired male even closer to his embrace and stephen is more than happy to comply.

the two of them stay like that, inside the car, darkness surrounding them, underneath the night sky and the moonlight that gleamed down below them. both of them too busy embracing each other's prescence and breathing each other's scents in, not wanting to forget what each other smelled like: home.

**•┈୨♡୧┈•**

  
the light shines brightly in the dark room, directly shining towards the pale face of a young girl who winces at the sudden intrusion of light in her retinas. she growls lightly in her throat, mustering the most of her energy left in her body to glare at the shadowy figure sitting across from her.

" _annabelle lee_." the man greets from the opposite side of the girl. "i'm assuming you know why i've called you here."

"you'll be getting nothing out of me once i leave this room." the girl—annabelle—hisses. 

"i understand why you feel this way," the man began though annabelle's temper burst through the roof as she aggressively slammed her fists down on the table, quickly standing up too fast as she felt the chair she sat on a few seconds ago, falling to the ground with a loud thud. she leaned closer towards the man who seemed unfazed at her outburst, her messy black hair slowly sliding over her shoulders, messy strands of hair poking out at random places. 

" **you will never understand how i feel, so don't even try understanding a fraction of it.** " 

the man stays silent, watching her with expressionless eyes and annabelle decides to go full on out, because at this point, she barely has anything to lose. "you've taken everything from me, all what? for your own personal benefit?" she snorts, keeping her voice low though it was obvious from the slight wobble in her tone that she tried so hard to control herself from losing it. "you have taken my friends, my father, my mother, even _hosuh!"_

she continues staring at the man who hasn't moved an inch, though she could see the slow smile creeping up onto his face and suddenly a wave of realisation hit annabelle, making her blood run cold at what she had just said, her voice echoing and bouncing off from the walls of the room.

" _housh lee._ " the man finally spoke, letting out a chuckle.

"don't touch him! don't even look from him!" annabelle abruptly says, her hands reaching for the man sitting calmly in front of her, though she suddenly feels the multiple and heavy weight of arms roughly gripping her soft and fragile ones as she screams and kicks, wailing in agony as she realises that she had put her own _brother_ in this mess. what a horrible sister she was, she thinks as she already feels layers of tears building up in her eyes.

the man finally stands up, walking over towards where annabelle was now slowly sinking to the floor in defeat. "i suppose you _are,_ getting out of this room with the plenty of information i need." he says, crouching down to meet eye-level with annabelle, who stared at him with hatred, though the man only laughed, roughly gripping her chin with his disgusting _filthy_ hand of his. "take her back to the harvesting room." the man spits towards the people holding annabelle down, standing up and beginning to dust himself off. "quickly, call helper subject number 251 to join me in the cctv room." 

the men holding annabelle down raises her up gently back to her feet, guiding her out of the room, and a few moments later, there was a knock on the door of the cctv room that made the man swivel around in his chair, narrowing his eyes at the door that slowly creaked open, indeed revealing: helper subject number 251. 

"step forward." the man says in a cold voice, and hesitantly, the helper subject complies, shutting the door behind him.

" **you.** the one who let one of the innocents assigned for you to bring them here to **me** , you let one of them loose."

immediately the helper falls to his knees, crouching into a begging position, desperately repeating the words 'i'm sorry' over and over again and the man sighs defeatedly, too tired to have to deal with this nuisance. "stand up." he commands, and the helper immediately rises to his feet.

"one of the innocents that you let out, named hosuh lee. join me in reviewing the cctv footage. see if you're familiar if the innocent's face, even if it has been seven years, i'll blow your head open if you can't find him." 

gulping, the helper nods, cautiously stepping closer towards his boss and watching carefully at the cctv footage placed in many of the neighborhoods of _vinedo garden valley_ , the familiar place that hits him with nostalgia as he remembers chasing down the innocent. his eyes narrow as for a split second in the blurry cctv footage taken seven years ago, there had been slight movement detected.

"sir, if you'll allow me." he murmurs, shifting closer towards the screen and pressing a few buttons onto the keyboard, and a bunch of new screens pop up, different angles of security footage found as he sees the sudden movement of a single figure running forward and a few seconds later, a bunch of men dressed in black suits, like him, following right behind. he continues pressing buttons quickly, switching to different screens in order to catch up to where the innocent was running to, though he eventually came to an end, where he suddenly switched to the next set of security camera footages, only to find nothing, just the pitch black night and a few broken streetlights flickering on and off.

"find him." his boss beside him growls out, making the helper start frantically start punching in different codes, switching to different screens, desperately trying to trace the last of any suspicious movements on the footage.

suddenly his fingers come to a halt on the keyboard as he raised one of his eyebrows in confusion. his boss beside him lets out a noise of confusion. "what is it?" 

"the innocent, i think he's hiding behind one of the dumpsters in the alleyway, sir." the helper murmurs, eyes trained on the still screen that didn't have any movement, but sure enough, he was right, and soon enough, a small figure emerges out from the dark depths of the alleyway behind the dumpster. 

"follow him." his boss commands, pushing himself away from the keyboard, allowing the helper to have more access to the cctv footage.

the helper obeys, shifting closer towards the keyboard and begins to continuously tap against the keyboard, switching to even more different screen footages, until he comes across one where he could _clearly_ see the innocent standing still, staring up at what seemed like a bright neon sign, before heading in towards the somewhat like shop. 

"freeze." the man says from behind him and the helper quickly pauses the video footage with a press of the spacebar on the keyboard. "now replay 30 seconds before." he commands, and the helper obliges. 

"zoom in fifty percent." the video footage zooms in towards the bright neon sign, though it is quite blurry.

"zoom in a hundred percent." the video footage zooms in even closer and it was easy to tell that the sign had bright pink neon lights, the name probably undistinguishable to recognize, though it did have 6 letters, if you looked closely.

"now enhance video quality." the man says, leaning on his chair as he watched the helper quickly press in a few buttons, as the video footage slowly starts becoming more clear, as clear as the smirk upon the man's face. "we've found him," he said in satisfaction, staring at the screen that showed a sign decorated with bright flashing pink neon lights, reading: _merque_. " **hosuh lee, your time from running away is up**." he mutters underneath his breath.

"you've found your first location to start off in order to find your missing target." the man says, eyes flickering towars the helper who had now faced him. "i'm assuming by the cctv footage you know where to go and where to begin." he states, pleased at how the helper quickly nods. "good." he says, waving a hand dismissively. "go. and bring him to me, _alive_." he adds.

the helper makes a final gesture towards him in respect, bowing at a perfect 90 degree angle, before quickly exiting the room, leaving the man in darkness, alone in the cctv room. his gaze locks back on towards the video footage flashing in front of him, eyes slowly turning dark as the corner of his lips tugged into a small smirk.

" **hosuh lee, the hunt is on**." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello!! so first off: i have to apologize for making this chapter longer than neccessary, i usually like writing chapters with a lot of detail so readers can easily picture what's happening in each scenario, but i do realise if i keep up the pace like this im probably going to get nowhere and i really do hate making a story that has slow progress in it so i do hope you understand ;-;  
> though hopefully this chapter has made a bit of progress, and slight confusion lol i'll try to do my best to explain: 
> 
> 1) both stephen and jay now know about hosuh being an innocent (stephen noticing when the drunk man had let go of hosuh and when hosuh rubbed his neck, stephen could see the innocent mark briefly)  
> 2) i love jayphen lol so i had to insert it here: yes, jayphen are in a relationship (im thinking of making poly relationships?? if that's okay with the readers)  
> 3) you'll see the reason behind why stephen has a breakdown from not being able to protect hosuh in chapters later on <3  
> 4) jay's normal eyes are colored sunset-red but if he's overwhelmed by a strong emotion ex): rage, fear, sadness then the color of his eyes will split into bright red and yellow until he's calmed down then it'll return to normal sunset-red :')  
> 5) yes, annabelle is hosuh's sister and yes it has been 7 years considering that hosuh was 17 when he managed to escape and is now 24  
> 6) the "man's" identity will be kept a secret ahaha suffer, nd he doesn't know that hosuh actually works at merque, he just knows that the club is one of the first places to start off looking for the innocent  
> 7) why is the "man" now suddenly interested in finding hosuh 7 years later?? i can't tell you that until later on in the story ;)
> 
> i hope that answered some of the most obvious questions but if you do have a question i haven't answered feel free to leave a comment and i'll try to reply soon!! i hope nobody's disappointed in this chapter and i'm really grateful for people supporting this fic like wtf y'all more than a 100 hits in 2 days?? wsdfms you guys are insane i love you, thank you for your support and kudos's and comments ( ⸝•ᴗ•⸝)♡ 
> 
> [this chapter is mostly a filler to explain what's kind of going on but i promise i'll make it up to people if they're disappointed by this chapter that in the next one t h i n g s a r e g o n n a g e t s p i c y and it might take a while for the next chapter to be out so hope you understand!!]


	3. aren't knives too informal?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> — ❝ he would've brought a gun if it weren't for the 'no weapons' rule on a friday night, but he's grateful knives are too informal in this occassion. ❞

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !! WARNING: another long chapter ahead that involves graphic description of blood and violence so take care lovelies <3

> _personas._

the aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by others.

in this case, people can have different personas, whether it'd be personas that they only show to their close friends and loved ones, or only to themselves, and an entirely different persona shown to other people. hosuh lee, has two entirely different personas, one being his true self, _hosuh lee,_ the innocent, whose supposedly pure, gentle, loving and warm, all the traits belonging to an innocent. and another, _gloss,_ a normal bartender. 

sometimes hosuh wishes his true persona was replaced by his fake one. he, in his perspective, found it so much easier to live life as gloss, when his working shifts started at 6pm and ended at 3am, when nobody had to question what his true identity was, from underneath his hidden wrist, the burden of a mark that could be revealed in one blow and with a snap of his fingers, his life could flip completely upside down. he didn't want to live life as hosuh lee, an innocent, who had to be on edge everytime, having to cover his wrist with his hand unconciously out of fear, and having to wear long sleeves even out in the heat. 

though despite all of these disadvantages, he manages to look on the brighter side of life to get his mood up from waking up usually on the wrong side of the bed, even sometimes upside down and head dangling off the edge of the bed, only to remember what his true persona was. he's grateful, that though despite the bad things that had traumatized him from childhood, he still manages to wake up every morning, with the sunlight seeping out of the gentle waving curtains, shining onto a face, welcoming him with a good morning.

it had been seven years now, since that inccident happened, since he had lost contact and touch with his family. he doesn't even know if they're still alive or not, or how much they had to go through, and he'd rather let that question be unanswered by his late night overthinking thoughts that kept him awake at night, tossing and turning, and sometimes jolting out of bed with a fresh sheet of cold sweat to his forehead. he tries to get rid of the worst possible thoughts, by clubbing, serving drinks at the bar, though none of that seemed to have worked, until hosuh had met two particular interesting men, when the three of them have stumbled upon one another, as if fate had tripped them over imaginary strings, and ever since that night that he met the blonde with sunset-red eyes that gleamed in the dark, along with the taller male with a messy tuft of pleasing violet hair underneath the neon lights, he couldn't get the thought of them out of his head.

he wouldn't call it a crush, persay— but the two of them have definitely made him felt something he hadn't felt in a long time.   
home.

it was weird, to consider that throughout the two nights he'd spent with the two men, he had already became attached. whenever their sunset-red eyes, or perhaps their dark violet eyes locked onto his blue crystal eyes, it felt as if he was sinking somewhere, not in a painful way—but as if in a peaceful way into the depths of an unknown ocean, where the world fell silent around them and all he could feel was warmth spreading throughout his chest, buzzing to the tip of his fingertips. and hosuh was lost in a world he didn't know he could even be in, only to be found by the two men he had met, where the sunset-red orbs oddly reminded him of the sun setting above the pastel pink cotton-candy-like clouds, followed by the dark violet night sky consuming it. 

to say that he was excited to mayhaps see the two again, was an understatement. 

he tries not to get his hopes up too much though, a thing he always tells to himself to not be faced with the sudden slap of disappointment to his face. after all, the last time they had met, stephen was quite a mess, and hosuh knew that something was up by the time he heard the blonde's concerned tone in his voice, something rare to hear, since he had always had this calm demeanor surrounding him, smooth low voice that paid no care and a lazy grin on his face. he had never seen the messy blonde's sunset-red eyes glimmer with another emotion rather than mischief, and honestly, it worried hosuh.

the clock was slowly ticking second by second as time passes by as the bright neon light annoyingly flashes on hosuh's face, painting his silvery moonlight locks bright and shiny. but he busies himself and his thoughts by serving drinks to people, making a mental note onto how many drinks each people had, with a small smile forcefully tugging on his lips as he continuously hears the drunk low voices of men and annoyingly high pitched yells of women as he declines the offer of serving more than three drinks. 

he sighs, already wanting his shift to be done as his baby blue eyes flickered down onto the glass that he was cleaning with a small handkerchief. that is, until a very familiar low voice breaks through his silencing thoughts, making his eyes shoot back up, a genuine and not forcefully-faked smile tugging on the corner of his lips as his bright ocean eyes locked onto the very familiar and longing gaze of sunset-red, accompanied by the bright messy violet hair glinting underneath the neon lights, uneven strands swishing back and forth. 

with a single fond stare at stephen's warm violet night eyes that sheepishly gazed into hosuh's, he knew that the purple haired boy was okay. 

"hm, i bring stephen here just for one night and you're already ignoring my presence, mon chérie?" hosuh flickers his eyes towards the messy blonde who was beginning to take a seat in front of him and boy he knew time was going to go faster than he could comprehend. he raises an eyebrow at the warm honey-like voice that soothed his ears, the welcoming warm feeling that spread throughout his body and buzzed to his fingertips. 

"it's because i'm more attractive than you." stephen replies from the other side, and it makes hosuh let out a small airy laugh as he notices the messy blonde's mocking hurt expression, a hand darting out to place against his chest. "hard to believe, coming from person ranking at always second place." 

hosuh fondly notices the way the purple haired male rolls his eyes at the blonde, and suddenly a wave of nostalgia hits him, when he and his sister used to tease each other like this, and the warm buzzing feeling in his body slowly disappears, usual soft blue eyes fading into a dim glow as he watches the two men in front of him bicker like children, memories one by one flashing into his head, painting a grey image in his mind he so badly wants to forget. 

he eventually forgets how long he's zoned out until a warm hand was gently placed onto his and it makes his eyes flash back up to the dark violet orbs that bored into his with concern, in which hosuh's heart aches at. and he notices the similar expression painted on the messy blonde's face, an also oddly similar expression hosuh remembers from noticing the blonde whose sunset-red eyes bored into stephen's lost dark violet ones the other night. they were concerned, for _him._ he didn't remember what it felt like, to have someone worry about him, just as much as his sister did, and the warm welcoming feeling flooded back, the dim glow of blue in his eyes quickly brightening underneath the bright strobe lights. 

"i'm fine." hosuh mumbles, an answer to the two men's silent question. "anything for tonight?" he asks instead.

"if we're talking about drinks, then maybe a surprise that's not _too_ alchoholic, for this big baby over here." the blonde gestures towards stephen, followed by a light growl from the said male. "but other than that, would if be alright if i ordered your name?" 

hosuh feels himself slowly approaching closer towards the blonde, hands resting on top of the smooth and cold black counter, eyebrows raised challengingly. "what makes you think i'll hand my name over to you on a silver platter at your command, _your highness_?" he says, words tumbling off his tongue smoothly and he watches in satisfaction at the way the blonde's sunset-red eyes momentarily darkened at the way his voice lowers into nothing more than a seductive tone at the last two words of his sentence. 

"you still don't trust me, _gloss_?" the blonde breathes, his low smooth voice dragging over his name in dangerous ways that shouldn't make hosuh's stomach tighten in delight. 

"if i remember correctly, you still haven't gave me your name either, mister surprise." he replies, unconciously tucking a lock of silver behind his ear, unbeknowst to him as jay's eyes followed his hand's movement carefully.

"oh my god, you two are literally playing a game over names yet here i am with a full-ass exposed name." stephen exclaims in a bored tone, and hosuh's eyes blinked towards the purple haired male whose posture was now slightly more relaxed, chest slightly leaning towards the counter, a palm resting on his chin. 

the blonde beside him chuckles, arms crossing over his chest as he glances over towards the taller male. "well, _stephen_. what do you want your mystery name to be?" 

without hesitation and unwavering confidence, the purple haired male immediately blurts out, " _master._ " tone lowering into a low purr and it immediately makes hosuh let out a laugh, cheeks lightly tinting pink at the sudden name introduced that was way out of his expectations. 

the blonde chuckles as well, shaking his head in embarrassment. "way too kinky." 

"you're the one with the way too dirty mind, sir." stephen huffs, dark violet eyes abruptly flickering towards hosuh's and it makes him raise an eyebrow questioningly as the corner of the purple haired male's slim pink lips tugged into a small smirk. "c'mon, gloss, we don't need him. care for a dance?" he says, standing up and pushing the stool he was sitting in, back with a single kick of his back knees. 

the out of context offer makes hosuh look at stephen with a stunned expression and he notices the way the purple haired male's cocky expression that was once floated with high confidence, slowly lower into a mess as his cheeks slowly splotched bright red in embarrassment, eyes widening in concern. "i mean—" stephen begins, unsure, hands immediately raised high up in defense. "if you want to—? it's fine if you don't want to, i'm not going to force you or anything i— oh my god kill me." he groans, a hand coming up to cover his flushed face as he sinks back onto the seat in defeat. 

beside him, the messy blonde watches the interaction in silence, before bursting out into loud laughter, a sharp glare returning towards him from stephen as he growls out to threaten jay by stabbing him at least 24 times in the chest, but it didn't help the deepening red hue blooming on the purple haired male's cheeks, nor the uncontinuous laughter bubbling out of the blonde's mouth. even hosuh finds himself struggling to supress his giggling inside, biting the inside of his lips politely, though he doesn't miss the way one of stephen's eyes twitched annoyedly. 

"ah, how cute." jay finally says, wiping a tear out of his eyes, a smile stitched on his face. "well?" he says, eyes darting towards hosuh's which makes the corner of his lips tug into a slanted smile questioningly. "what?" he asks, eyebrows raised as he watches the blonde shrugs his shoulders. "aren't you going to dance with sir master over here?" he says, gesturing towards a tomato looking stephen whose head has not yet resurfaced from the depths of shame.

hosuh finds himself pursing his lips at the suggestion. "i can't dance." 

"fuck, neither can he. the guy has no sense of rhythm whatsoever." the blonde says carelessly, waving his hand around and beside him, stephen is banging his head against the black marble counter in an attempt to merge with it and disappear from the face of earth.

"sure," hosuh says, eyes shyly gazing into stephen's surprised dark violet ones, whose head seemed to have shot up at the accept of his request. "why not." he mumbles, stepping around the bar and out into the crowded area, well aware at the multiple eyes staring hungrily at his figure, including two pairs of which he's heading towards right now. 

"but your shift's not over yet, i thought—?" stephen began, though hosuh places a small finger onto the purple haired male's slim pink lips to silence him. a pink tongue darts out to swipe the bottom of his lip, saliva making it glint and shine underneath the lights. "i thought you wanted a dance, pretty boy?" he murmurs, eyelids heavy and blue eyes swirling with mischief as he notices the slight blush blooming on stephen's cheeks, almost well hidden enough in the dark. 

stephen, left momentarily stunned, stands there with hands freezed to his sides, body visibly tense and for a moment, he forgets what lungs are as he's left breathless by the up-close and personal contact with the silver haired angel, who rolls his eyes playfully at him. he was about to shake his head out of his gay panic, that is, until he feels himself getting roughly pulled forward so they're now towards the dance floor, people surrounding them, and his eyes widened at the bartender whose slim pale fingers are locked around his loose tie, pulling him nearer towards him until his hand comes forward to gently push against stephen's chest. 

in a moment like this, all he can see is red and all he can feel is warmth spreading from his cheeks, setting them red on fire, buzzing to the tip of his ears that were now turning visibly red like his cheeks, and he doesn't miss the bartender's blue eyes glinted at his blushing face with mischief. he prays to the god, if there even is one as he's atheist, that the silver haired boy in front of him can't feel the wild heart pounding harshly against his ribcage. though that prayer didn't seem to have been heard for the bartender's eyes flickered down towards his hand that was placed on stephen's chest. 

"calm down, your heart's going to burst out of your chest." he mumbles, before glancing up at stephen, a small smile on his pink glossy lips with soft bright blue eyes, his silvery moonlight locks dangling from the side of his face and stephen explodes. 

well, not literally, but stephen feels the world fall dead silent as an eerie silence pierces through his ears, the heavy bass booted of dubstep music being completely drowned at how hard his heart was beating against his chest. in the corner of his eye, he can make out a blurry figure sitting from the bar, his messy blonde hair immediately distinguished that it was jay, who was casting the couple a smug smirk, an eyebrow raised at stephen's blushing red face. 

fuck, he feels like a coward, and stephen definitely knows that after all this mess, jay is going to tease the hell out of him, so sucking in a deep breath, he manages to cool his face down for a bit, eyes boldly flickering towards the mischevious pair of blue orbs that still lingered on him. he gently steps away from the silver haired beauty before bowing into a mannerly gesture, raising his left hand up towards the bartender, another hand behind his back as he looks up at the innocent, strands of bright purple slightly falling over his violet eyes. "a dance you'll have with me, gloss?" 

the silver haired boy is left momentarily shocked, though recovers with a small smile as he shyly accepts the offer, a hand gently placing in the large palm of stephen's, who gently steps forward, another hand coming up to place on his waist. "i can't dance." the purple haired suddenly blurts out, and it makes hosuh laugh at his sudden outburst, the facade of built confidence immediately being broken down in seconds.

"i know." he replies, his other hand gently coming up to rest against stephen's shoulder. "your friend over there told me." 

"oh my god that little shit." stephen mumbles under his breath and hosuh gazes into stephen's eyes with adoration. "it's okay." he mumbles, the hand that was placed on stephen's shoulder now slowly coming to cup the purple haired male's deep cheekbones, who in turn, leans in towards hosuh's gentle touch. "i can't dance either." and it makes stephen's eyes bore into his, glimmering in slight mischief as stephen lets out a scoff. "that sure makes the situation better." 

hosuh shrugs, pursing his lips into a thin line. "we'll just go in our own pace." he says, and before stephen could reply, he's suddenly swept off by his feet as hosuh gently guides him into the crowd that engulfs them towards the loud music, bodies of different people pushing towards them and stephen feels himself uncomfortably tense at the sudden unknown surrounding. immediately his violet eyes flickered back towards hosuh's ones, and he feels his heart slightly beginning to slow down and the heavy blaring of music in his ears slowly lowering into smaller volume as he feels himself lost in a world of ocean eyes. 

he stumbles a few time, sometimes over the feet of unknown people, and sometimes even over his own, but he soon gets the hang of it as the grip around the bartender's waist slowly loosens, and his posture becomes less tense. with a swerve of confidence, stephen takes the lead by gently tangling his long fingers around the silver haired boy's smaller ones, who glances briefly at their intertwined hands, then back to stephen, eyes glimmering in confusion.

though stephen only lets out a small smirk, before suddenly twisting the bartender's wrist around gently, twirling the angel in front of him around and the purple haired male watches with soft eyes at the bartender's surprised expression, light laughter tickling his ears as wisps of silver locks twirled around in the dark. it's as if the world is slowing down by the way stephen is able to capture every moment and angle of the silver haired boy's angelic expressions, his soft blue eyes shyly gazing towards his, soft pink lips slightly parted and it's almost as if stephen wants to paint a portrait of him, or perahps snap a quick picture of the boy, to keep this precious moment with him at all times. 

from an outsider's point of view, they probably look like a weird couple, slow dancing in the dark in a crowded club, bodies covered in sweat pressing against them as loud heavy music drummed against the floor of the room. they looked out of place, but they stood out. the boy with silver hair that twirled around in the dark with the boy with messy violet hair that glowed underneath the bright lights, as they paid no attention and no care to the weird looks given by other people, hushed whispers being shared about them. they were too lost in each other, in each other's soft eyes that gazed into one another with love and adoration, lost in a world yet to be discovered by each other as they breathed in each other's longing scent and presence, neither of them wanting to have this moment come to an end. 

"you look lovely." stephen unconciously says out loud, enjoying the way the silver haired boy ducks his head in embarrassment, a soft pink blush blooming to the tip of his small ears. 

"i get told that a lot, thank you." the bartender replies, soft eyes flickering back to him. 

stephen doesn't reply, but it's as if at this point, his body is controlling himself rather than his mind that was now rather empty. a hand of his gently raises towards the bartender's face, gently brushing away the locks of moonlight that were slightly covering his delicate face. he barely can understand whats going on as he slowly leans in towards the silver haired boy, their noses slightly brushing against each other and the pleasant scent of sweet vanilla makes stephen want to indulge and embrace the boy even more.

though a loud slam of a door against the wall makes his head jerk away from doing so, and he doesn't miss the way the silver haired boy's soft expression quickly morphs into a startled one, eyes shooting towards the direction of the sudden loud sound, pupils shrinking in fear. it makes stephen turn as well, eyes stopping and narrowing at the new intruders that allowed themselves in the room, dressed in black suits he knew too well didn't mean good business. he followed their movements with his eyes carefully, as they eyed the crowded room around them, one of which locked onto stephen's gaze, making him raise an eyebrow challengingly, making the man in the suit look away. 

the inside of his gut was already giving him a bad feeling though he pushed it down, watching carefully as one of them after another, pushed past the multiple bodies surrounding them, before heading towards a more taller and bulkier male who was near one of the corners of the room, also serving drinks to different people, his bushy beard and bright ginger hair tied into a manbun indicated that he was probably the owner of the whole club, no doubt. the men in suits slowly surrounded the bar, and hushed whispers were exchanged between them that stephen couldn't make out, cursing to himself that he couldn't read lips as well as jay. 

he isn't sure if he saw what he did correctly, but it was as if in the midst of the conversation between men to men, the owner of the club flickered his alarmingly bright orange eyes directly towards him, well, more to hosuh, who still remained tense in his arms. stephen looks down, biting the inside of his cheek as he notices the silver haired boy's bright blue eyes fill up with alarm, staring right ahead of him, right back at the ginger haired man's eyes. 

"hey," stephen mumbles, gently placing a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder, heart clenching when the boy flinched, blue eyes gazing into his with fear. "you okay?" he asks, though the bartender quickly shakes his head, mumbling a few incoherent words that oddly sounded similar to the words 'no'. 

"i—i have to go." he finally says, head rasing up as his eyes swirled with fear and desperation. "i'm sorry." 

"don't apologize." stephen purses his lips, before firmly grabbing the silver haired boy's fingers into his, gently dragging him away from the crowd and back towards jay who watches them approaching rather quickly with alarming speed. "something wrong?" he asks as the couple neared him. 

"he needs to get out of here." stephen says quickly, shielding the silver haired boy's smaller frame with his bigger one, in a hopeful attempt to buy them more time. jay's sunset-red eyes flickered from hosuh, to the men in suits who were still occupied by the ginger haired man and he came to a conclusion, eyes darkening. 

"gloss, is their a back door exit out of this place?" jay asks, gaze darting towards hosuh's wide troubling eyes and it makes his eyes soften. the silver haired boy takes a while to answer, eyes darting wildly around him until stephen mumbles a quick 'breathe' in his ear and he follows the purple hair's advice, inhaling a quick breath and closing his eyes, exhaling and re-opening his bright blue eyes that were now lit into a fiery gaze. "it's behind the bar." he says and jay nods, standing up.

"i'm assuming you don't feel safe here anymore." he says, eyes momentarily glancing towards the men in suits who were now spreading out at an alarming pace, tapping on the multiple shoulders of people minding their own businesses for their attention and he knew time was running up. "would you like to come with us?" he suggests, eyes locking onto the gaze of the bartender who stares at him with multiple silent questions in his eyes. 

"how do i know i can trust you?" he whispers, eyebrows slanting down. 

"you don't have to." jay quickly pipes up, his soft eyes desperately searching through the bartender's blue ones, in an attempt to silently reassure him. "but we want to keep you safe." he says, with a quick glance towards stephen's dark violet ones, who nods in return, and the silver haired boy hesitates. 

"we don't have time." stephen mumbles out in an urgent tone, a hand coming to rest on the bartender's shoulders. 

"i still don't know your name." the bartender blurts out and in this inappropriate moment of time, jay manages to let out a small smile as he extends a hand out towards the silver haired boy who stares at it, waiting for his answer. 

"it's jay." 

and that was all it took for hosuh to wrap his fingers around the blonde's, jay, who quickly wheels him in without hesitation as they quickly moved around the bar and towards the back door exit of the club, quickly followed by stephen who were behind them. jay, whose hand is still intertwined with hosuh's, uses the back of his shoulder to push against the heavy door, grunting in the proccess as he succeeds, the cool night wind ruffling hosuh's silvery moon-locks in welcome and he shivers. 

"fuck." he hears stephen curses from beside him and immediately his heart drops at the tone he knew that didn't mean good news. he takes the few seconds he had left to glance around behind him and behind stephen's head, the multiple men in suits whose dark gazes were directly locked on hosuh's, and that was the last thing he saw from inside the club as the door quickly shuts behind him, jay quickly tugging hosuh forward and towards out into the night streets of the dark alleyway.

"wait, stephen!" hosuh exclaims, realising that the purple haired male was now no longer trailing behind him, now that the door was shut behind him and it seemingly became harder for him to reach for it as jay's iron grip around his wrist tugged him away from it. 

"it's fine," jay hisses out, his breath fogging up into a small cloud from the cold atmosphere around them. "he'll deal with them and buy us some time, in the meantime, focus on what's behind us and i'll focus on what's in front of us. stephen will be fine, i promise you that, but right now let's get you out of here, okay?" 

hosuh only nods, feeling slightly calmed down by the reassuring gaze of jay's sunset-red eyes that momentarily met his own for a few seconds. he spares one last glance at the closed door of the back of the club, before turning around and quickly beginning to pick up pace, feet kicking up from the ground and he began running. running away from the men in suits, from danger and from the past he so badly wants to bury seven years ago that had seemed to resurface and haunt him to this day. 

in front of him, jay who had seemed to have better pace and stamina than hosuh did, quickly fished around the pocket of his ripped black jeans, digging out his black phone that glinted in the night air for a few seconds as he quickly swiped right, unlocking the home screen and quickly punching in three numbers onto the screen, using his free hand that wasn't holding hosuh's, to bring the phone near his ear. he mumbles a colorful string of curse words out of his lips as he dials the number again a few times after being left unanswered.

hosuh could only watch at him with despair, before turning around quickly, breath hitching in his throat as the once closed door of the exit of the club, had now suddenly burst open, and his heart soared in his chest as he noticed the vibrant purple in the air, though his heart immediately dropped to his stomach upon realising the familiar men in suits charging right on stephen's tail who was now running up to them. 

"stephen, watch out!" hosuh yells at him as he realises from the corner of his eye, a man in a formal suit, bringing out a gun, alarmingly similar to a revolver, directly aiming towards the purple haired male, who easily dodged at the attack fired at him, head wildly turning around at hosuh's warning. a loud snarl erupts out from his throat that stephen didn't even know himself could muster, quickly digging underneath his belt that was covered by his long coat, fishing out a couple of pocket knives that glinted back at hosuh as they were raised in the air. 

with alarming accuracy, stephen threw one towards the man in the suit whose hands were prepared to pull the trigger, though that didn't happen as the small knife that gleamed underneath the night sky, whizzed towards the man, directly slicing into his hand and he lets out a yell of pain, dropping the gun as another hand quickly comes to clutch the opening wound that had begun to spray blood.

stephen quickly takes the oppurtunity to dart out another knife, flinging it towards the same target and by the man in the suit could comprehend what was coming towards him, his head snapped back and his eyes widened in pure fear in his last moments as the knife pierces through his forehead, making him stop dead in his tracks, before crumpling and falling to the ground, a pool of blood now beginning to form around the man. 

though one man seemed to have been taken down by stephen, that wasn't the end of it, as three more men emerged from the exit door, one carrying another revolver, one with a large knife, and the last one with a tranquilizer gun, since in his other hand, carried bright neon pink darts, needles that looked sharp enough to draw blood and prick through skin, enough for hosuh's skin to crawl just at the thought of it. 

"daniel, fuck, pick us up!" hosuh hears jay yell into his phone as the reciever of the other line finally picks up. 

"oh my god, you know where we are, don't pretend you don't know." jay growls, before muttering a few curse words, raising his phone high into the air and pressing the speakers button, making hosuh glance at jay questioningly. "you believe me now?" jay says, fighting the urge to roll his eyes as the multiple gun shots and yells of men echoed into the air, ringing in his ears and giving him a headache. 

"i— ah fuck, i don't know where we're heading but just follow where we go, okay? track us down or whatever you do with that hacker shit you do in your spare free time." the blonde snarls out as a final goodbye, shoving his phone back roughly into the pocket of his jeans, hands gripping on hosuh's wrist more tightly as he picks up the pace, sparing a quick glance at hosuh's blue eyes filled with fear, to stephen who was catching up behind them, throwing what seemed to be pocket knives at the two men who pointed their weapons at them, and two bodies surrounded by dark red slumped onto the ground. 

jay's once calming sunset-red eyes morphed into split bright red and yellow as he notices stephen succeed in throwing a knife directly towards the man holding a tranquilizer gun in his hands, who slumped to the ground, eyes rolling to the back of his head, blood gushing out. while the other, the final man in suit who alarmingly seemed to have been catching up, a revolver in his hands, fingers ready to pull the trigger at the purple haired male who seemed to be slowing down, both from the attacks and from running. 

the blonde's multi-colored eyes flickered towards hosuh's before muttering a 'run', a familiar word hosuh has been told several times and heard seven years ago from his sister, and he obeys without questioning, quickly running past jay, their intertwined fingers slipping off of each other and jay turns around, skidding to a halt and drawing in a deep breath, eyes darkening at the man in the suit who seemed to be approaching closer towards stephen and him. 

quickly, he ran at full speed, past stephen and towards the man in suit whose dark eyes flickered towards his fiery ones. he digs out something from the inside of his pockets underneath his sweater and pulls out two small pocket knives, similar towards stephen's, not missing the way in the corner of his eye, the smug smirk on the man's face that jay so desperately wants to wipe off with a quick swipe to the neck. 

though it did seem to leave jay at a disadvantaged, to be left alone with the man who was seemingly bulkier in frame and larger than him, fingers trained around the trigger as his aim changes, pinpointing towards jay. well, let's just say jay has a few tricks up his sleeves.

before the man could open fire, jay quickly picks up speed and raises one of his feet up towards the man, lurching him forward and roughly knocking the man off his feet and onto the ground, the revolver that was once in the palm of the man, was flown onto the ground, a few feet away from him. it was now jay's turn to smirk smugly at the now defenseless man who was now pinned to the ground by him, raising the two knives held firmly in his hands into the air, before roughly plummeting them down and piercing through the silky fabric of the suit, and into the skin, drawing out blood.

though he didn't stop there, as he gripped the handles of the knives harder, twisting the knives around that was implanted into the man's arms, he, who let out a painful shriek that slowly died down as a quick slice to the neck with one of the knives that was harshly ripped out from the man's right arm silenced his painful cries. blood spurted from the man's throat as he chokes out his last curses and cries, splattering droplets of bright red onto jay's face, who stands up, giving the man one last look of disgust as he readjusts his tie to loosen it a bit more, before leaving him and running off to catch up with stephen and the innocent. 

he spots stephen breifly catching up to hosuh, his multi-colored orbs trained on the couple that had now escaped from the long and dark alleyway that was now filled with four dead bodies and surrounding them, pools of blood. he watched as they rounded the right corner and he breathes out a sigh of relief he didn't know he held in for so long. he quickly spares a final glance behind him, making sure that nobody was following him, and indeed he was right. 

there was no more men in suits armed with multiple dangerous weapons that were coming after them any time soon, jay notes, turning his head around and eyes flickering upwards towards one of the security cameras that was fixed in his direction, it's camera lenses glinting back at him. he quickly mutters a curse underneath his breath as he quickly reaches down and scoops up one of the pocket knives that was dripping with bright red blood, into his own hand from the ground.

jay firmly grips the handle of the knife, picking up the pace and staring right directly towards the camera, briefly closing one of his eyes and taking aim, before roughly throwing the knife towards the camera that landed with a loud crack, bits of broken glass falling towards the ground, along with the head of the security camera, falling dead as the knife had pierced into the lens and cut off its circuits. 

he quickly rounds the corner, eyes brightening in relief upon spotting the familiar tuft of purple and silver moon-like locks underneath the night sky. the pair, upon hearing the heavy footsteps, turns their heads around, stephen shielding hosuh behind him, eyes darkening before slowly softening when realising it was only jay, the messy blonde who was now catching up to them, tie loosely hanging around his neck and the right side of his face splattered with almost dried up blood. 

stephen feels the silver haired boy shrink behind him, so he gently takes his small hand into his own, softly rubbing his thumb against the smooth skin, in hopes to calm down the trembling boy. 

"i thought we agreed on the 'no weapons' term tonight." jay huffs, stepping towards them, his blonde hair swaying in the air that brightly gleamed underneath one of the streetlights shining below them. 

"you said no weapons, pocket knives aren't a weapon, and plus, i don't think you would've strangled the man in the suit to death without a weapon." stephen points out, raising an eyebrow challengingly. 

the blonde shakes his head, letting out a laugh as he digs his hands into the pocket of his jeans. "i thought knives were too informal?" 

"at least we got out of there alive." the purple haired male says, rolling his eyes. 

"yeah, um. thank you." a new voice quietly pipes up and stephen and jay's eyes flickered towards the small frame of the bartender who seems to still have been slightly shaken up, by the way his bright blue eyes were still slightly widened, and his body still trembling in fear. 

"look," jay begins, sighing. "i know this might be a lot to proccess right now but—" 

"why do you even want to help me?" hosuh suddenly blurts out, backing away, a hand unconciously coming up to cover his wrist that burdened the angel mark engraved onto his skin. 

"because we want to." the blonde replies calmly, slowly stepping towards the innocent. "but we can't do that if you won't allow us to." 

the silver haired boy hesitates, an unknown feeling crawling in the pit of his stomach that makes him want to reach out towards the two males in front of him, to trust them with his life, because technically they did just save him back then in the alleyway, and he didn't even know if he would make it out alive if it weren't for them. 

"you trusted us back then when we left merque." jay continues, stepping closer towards hosuh, his gleaming red and yellow eyes melting into hosuh's own crystal blue ones. "and now i'm asking for you to trust us again." he mumbles, a hand extending out towards hosuh, the familiar gesture the blonde offered when they helped assisted him through the escape. "please, gloss." jay finishes, his tone lowering into a desperate whisper, multicolored eyes filled with desperation, and that was all it took for hosuh to walk towards jay, completely ignoring his open palm, though quickly he threw himself into the blonde's arms, squeezing his own arms around the blonde's body, despite the bloody mess jay was in right now.

said male, was very taken back at the sudden gesture, though nontheless, indulged in it as he gently carressed the soft silvery locks of the bartender's hair he so desperately wanted to tangle his fingers in from the very first night he had met him. 

"i trust you, jay." hosuh mumbles in the crook of jay's neck. 

their sweet embrace was shortly interrupted by a loud honking sound of a car that made hosuh flinch in jay's arms. the blonde's eyes flickered towards the sound, quickly sighing in relief at the black van that had neared in, the car window slowly rolling down, and lord and behold, revealed a familiar looking male with bright green hair who sat in the drivers seat, behind the wheel as his eyes glanced at stephen, then to the silver haired innocent, then finally at jay, before raising an eyebrow and letting out a deep sigh. 

"get in. you have a lot of explaining to do." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wAs thIs chApter sp i c E y enOugh aaaaa?? omgosh look finally a new chapter that took ages to write sdhehefhds, i'm sorry!! this chapter was a bit of a struggle for me to write since i have never really written anything outside of my comfort fluff zone (though i hope i did well and didn't disappoint anybody ;-;) and i would've updated sooner but unfortunately exams, and i caught a fever and had to stay in but i guess it was worth it because i had a bunch of ideas prepared, and i'm so!! overwhelmed by the support like?? thank you so much it makes my heart warm and melt at your comments and your support :(( im actually getting kind of self concious about the way i write since this is getting more attention day by day ;0; i love you! <3 this was updated late at night when i should be heading to bed right now, so i haven't checked for errors and this hasn't been proofread i apologize, i have a dentists appointment tomorrow and i might be getting one of my wisdom teeth removed so yayy fun times >:( 
> 
> but yay daniel is finally introduced!! pls welcome my bby with love he's very underappreciated also yes this is the time where you are welcomed to hug me because voila i introduced the long awaited stosuh moment and yes this is the time where you slap me because i ruined their brief moment lol slAP ME pleASE I CANT WITH MYSELF EITHER (T⌓T)


	4. well, guns are too impersonal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> — ❝ in this dangerous game of tag, with a combination of slight russian roulette,  
> we'll see who makes it out alive with another new player joining the game and being it. ❞

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a lot of the word "green" was used in the making of this chapter though the word isn't abused too much often (i hope), and this is way too long of a boring an unneccessary filler chapter, but once again: hope you enjoy ♥︎

> the car ride on the way home was silent.

home, was it? a bitter taste easily felt on hosuh's tongue when he thinks about that word. an odd word he has never understood or have felt. the three of them, he, jay, and stephen, had entered this somewhat unknown man's car, his bright green hair still visible even in the dark. hosuh was sat in the middle, bunched up between the two, with stephen to his right and jay to his left and he felt very uncomfortable and out of place, to say the least. not only from the small and tiny seating he was in, but also from the cold and chilly tense atmosphere surrounding them as nobody had dared say a word, let alone breathe loudly.

hosuh wasn't sure if 'home' would be a right term to describe where they were heading, since he had literal no clue where this green haired male was driving them to, and he wasn't sure if he was breathing anymore at this point. 

there were times when daniel, the green haired male, abruptly turned the steering wheel, swerving the car quickly towards the right and sometimes to the left, making hosuh lose balance of his body, shoving himself towards either jay or stephen a the same time when the car rounded a corner or two. thankfully, that was all over, though he would be lying if he said he didn't feel his cheeks heat up when his shoulder brushed stephen's or jay's broad ones. 

"wipe your dumbass face with this, i don't want people staring at you with blood splattered on half of your face. "daniel says, using one hand to throw a pack of wet wipes towards jay sitting in the back seat, bright green eyes still transfixed on the road with his other arm tightly gripping the steering wheel. the blonde takes it in silence, ripping one out and smothering his face in it, crumpling the wet wipe into a small ball that was stained with light pink from dried up blood. 

the car had slowed down to a stop, daniel pulling the car gear in park and turning off the engine. neither he nor stephen and jay had said a word, though they had now began to shift their bodies that were once stone cold, towards the car doors, punching against the lock and stepping out, jay doing the same as stephen though he had climbed out through the opposite door. hosuh was the only one left in the car, as he heard two of the doors slam loudly, shut, making him flinch. 

in front of him, was the only car door still open, and stephen who was still standing in front of it, a hand gently gesturing out towards hosuh who in turn, looks up at stephen's night sky eyes. at least he felt safer whenever he locked his gaze on the male's violet ones. warily, he reaches his own hand towards stephen, feeling a gentle yet tight reassuring grip around his wrist as stephen helps him down from the car. 

grateful, he casts stephen a quick and brief small smile, though it felt as if it were more forced, the same smile he wore whenever serving drinks back at merque. the sudden thought of the bar flashing in his mind, followed by multiple men in suits chasing after them makes his skin crawl. he shudders, remembering the faint smell of blood flooding in his nose, the pained yells of the men and their pure fear engulfing their eyes in their last moments. 

"cold?" a sudden and familiar voice breaks through his thoughts that makes him look up.

hosuh shakes his head, away from the thoughts that were eating his mind alive, and at stephen's question, though as he looks down, he notices that his arms are were hugging around his small body. the cold wind suddenly blows in his ear, more locks of silver coming undone from his messy low ponytail, ruffling them a bit and he shivers. 

"here." stephen mutters, removing his own coat from his body and throwing the heavy fabric around his own frame. hosuh was about to give a look of protest, but a single glance from stephen and a small tug from the corner of his slanted lips made him look away, his arms reaching for the collar of the oversized thick coat, wrapping it tighter around him. he tries to distract himself, by lowering his head and nuzzling his nose with the soft fabric, which was probably a bad idea as he's hit with the warm scent of lavendar, the same smell as stephen and he subconsciously feels himself hug the coat around his body more, as if to drown in stephen's warm and comforting scent, and to be one with it. 

jay and daniel however, were already moving at a much more quicker pace, practically ditching him and stephen behind. hosuh looks up, eyebrows raised slightly as his blue orbs flickered up towards the _very_ high condo, and he would've almost mistakened it for a sky scraper if it weren't for the bright illuminated sign that read: _burnhem the condo._ the condo itself, judging by the exterior of it, was probably very luxurious, with how many floors high the condo was, bright yet calming yellow lights lighting up different rooms, even at around 4am in the morning.

"it's kind of a place where we'll crash for the night." stephen says from beside him, presumably noticing his lingering silence as his eyes were fixed on the condo. 

hosuh lowers his gaze away from the building, and onto stephen, raising an eyebrow. "this isn't your home?" 

the purple haired male lets out a laugh, raising an arm to awkwardly rub against his neck as he shrugs in defeat. "well no, not technically. we don't really _have_ a stable place to call home, yet. plus, it's best that we crash somewhere unknown for the night that isn't around the premises of where we three usually hang out, you know, in case those men in suits come barging in through our door." 

hosuh nods slowly as the words registered in his mind for a while. "you're not injured anywhere, are you?" he asks instead, switching to another topic as his eyes worridely grazed over stephen's body who looks at him in amusement. 

"i can take care of myself just fine, you don't need to w—" said male's sentence suddenly cuts off by a small sound of pain that makes fear engulf hosuh's bright blue eyes that flashed in alarm as he quickly aids to the man beside him, who seems to be clutching his right elbow in pain. 

"ah, fuck karma. one of the bullet must've grazed my skin." stephen grunts, biting his lip as he quickly rolls the long sleeves of his black sweater up, breath hitching in his throat as a wide yet long wound was spotted indeed on his right elbow, blood starting to gather up in little droplets as it trickled down and began dripping to the floor. 

"it's not that bad—" the purple haired male says, almost as if he's trying to convince himself that his right elbow doesn't have a literal open wound as blood begins to drip and form a pool around him. "not bad my ass." hosuh hisses out loud as he quickly grips the ends of his shirt, gathering the little strength he had to tear a small piece of fabric, using it as a cloth to stop the bleeding as he gently wraps it around the exposed wound. finishing the work as he wraps the cloth around the wound a few more times before tying it tightly, hosuh almost grimaces at the sight of blood starting to dirty the clean and white torn cloth with red. 

"thanks." stephen mutters, raising his elbow to get a better look at the wound, though hosuh is quick to stop him, swatting a hand at stephen's arm gently. "stop that, you're going to make blood drip out more." 

stephen raises an eyebrow at his statement. "you're unlikely to be in a position where you're starting to take care of me now." 

in this innapropriate moment of time, hosuh finds himself rolling his eyes, his stone cold and tense shoulders slowly relaxing. "i.. have been in lots of positions where i'm supposed to take care of people." he says, though the end of his sentence trails off quietly. 

lightly concerned at the sudden change in the silver haired boy's demeanour, stephen gently reaches his non-bleeding arm to rest against the bartender's shoulders, giving him a small warm smile he rarely gives to anyone, when sky blue eyes meet his dark violet ones. "so now it's our turn to be in a position where we take care of you." 

hosuh feels his heart melt, with the way stephen said that sentence with such love and care, though as he was about to respond, a loud shout was heard through the silent air, making his and stephen's heads snap towards the sound. there, on top of the stairs in front of the building was jay, easily distinguishable by his messy blonde hair glimmering at them even underneath the dark night sky. "you two love birds coming in or what?" he shouts and hosuh feels his face flush, and alongeside, stephen, whose shoulders seemed to have bunch up tensely. 

"jay, i'm giving you ten seconds to get your ass inside before i come and chase you down with the last knife i have!" the purple haired male shouts back, and though jay was far away from them, hosuh could hear soft laughter echoing in the air that slowly disappeared as a lanky hand was waved lazily, with jay now turning around and heading inside the condo. 

stephen lets out a sigh. "i'm really sorry about him." 

"it's alright," hosuh says, fighting the urge to smile. "it's quite endearing honestly." 

"what? me and him threaten to slit each others throats at least fives times a day, i have no idea how you find any part of that endearing." stephen says, walking beside the silver haired boy as they neared towards the condo, foot by foot raised up the stairs to the entrance of the building, where bright yellow lights flooded the first floor. 

the bartender with silver hair simply shrugs. "i might have chosen a weird word to put that statement with.." he mumbles and it makes stephen stifle a light laugh. "the relationship between you two," hosuh continues. "i don't know, it sort of reminds me of siblings you know, who you try to get along but you don't so you always end up bickering and having small arguments with, but at the end of the day, you really care about them. that sort of relationship kind of reminds me between you two." 

"well, i can definitely say jay and i aren't brothers nor are we related in blood in any way, but you sure do notice the small details about someone very easily, gloss." 

"what can i say?" hosuh chuckles, puffing out a breath of air that fogged up into a small cloud in front of him, skipping a few steps of the stairs as he reached the top of it, swiveling around to lean in towards stephen who raises an eyebrow at him in return, his feet stopping a few steps below hosuh. "i pay close attention to people who are interesting and special, sir stephen." 

and with that, the smell of warm vanilla disappears before it lingered in the air for a few moments, as locks of silver moonlight glimmered back at him, almost as if it was teasing him, with the way yellow lights shone over it, painting an angelic hue over the boy that had turned away from him, leaving stephen breathless. and for a moment, he forgets that his right elbow is practically bleeding out. 

he shakes his head, as if he was put on a trance by the silver haired angel. he barely even knew the bartender, but in two nights he had already gotten his hands dirty for him. this innocent is really something, stephen thinks, as he catches up to gloss, who seemed to have been walking towards daniel and jay, who were relaxing on one of the couches in the lobby, probably waiting for their room to get cleaned up by the staff.

he quickly jogs up towards them, throwing an arm around the silver haired boy's shoulder, who flinches at the sudden and playful gesture, though stephen is quick to murmur a quick apology, taking his chances to nose against the smaller male's dainty small ears that flushed pink, silver locks tickling his nose as it brushes gently against his face. he's probably never going to get used to the sweet vanilla scent of the bartender.

"what happened to your elbow?" a new voice emerges out of his thoughts and stephen's eyes flickered back towards daniel, whose eyebrows are raised in a manner that demanded an answer.

"got my hands a little dirty." stephen replies, using his other free hand to comb the messy strands of purple back in place. 

it was as if the green haired male was about to lecture his carelessness, though his mouth stops himself from doing so, pressing his lips into a thin line, shooting stephen a disappointing glance at which he rolls his eyes at. 

"welcome back, sirs, we do deeply apologize for not cleaning your room beforehand. please accept our apologies that are in gifts in your room, we do hope you enjoy them, and your stay." the staff member says, dressed in a red suit. he bows politely before quietly excusing himself as he heads back behind the counter of the receptionists. 

"you two have a lot of explaining to do once we enter the room, and i'm going to beat both of your asses when we're alone." daniel mutters in a low voice, who begins to be the first person to stand up, dusting himself and sparing a quick glance at the silver haired boy, their gazes briefly meeting as lime green bores into his blue ones. 

jay begins to stand up as well, stretching his limbs as he curls his arms up around his neck, letting out a soft tired sigh as his eyes briefly closed before re-opening and hosuh realises that the male's eyes that were once split into red and yellow, had subsided to it's normal sunset-red color. "fuck, i guess this means it's my turn to do the explaining, huh?" the blonde mumbles, and stephen lets out a laughing huff in agreement.

the three of them follow dan, who seems to have been lingering around the elevator, impatiently tapping his foot against the white marble floor that shone underneath the bright lights. by the time they had all gathered around the elevator, its doors had opened and they all stepped in, and stephen, who still has not let go of hosuh's shoulder is practically now clinging onto him, as the doors of the elevator had slowly shut, lifting them off of the ground and up into the air gently. 

"you okay?" hosuh mumbles, glancing at stpehen worridely whose shoulders seemed to have tensed up again, fingers around his shoulder that had now begun to fiddle with each other nervously. "i'm fine." the purple haired male replies back, though with the bartender's desperate puppy-dog eyes that bored into his, he lets out a small sigh before continuing in a tiny voice, "i'm just.. claustrophobic."

the silver haired boy's blue eyes softened and immediately stephen feels himself melting and lost into yet another world, as the bartender softly grabs his fingers with his own, gently intertwining their hands together, with the boy's small thumb gently brushing against stephen's hand in reassurance and strangely enough, he forgets what being scared of confined spaces feels like anymore. 

the elevator let out a soft 'ding', and it had begun to slow to a stop, the doors opening up and introducing into a bright new room hosuh feels fascinated with. the white marble tiled floor from the lobby on the first floor was now replaced with a soft beige carpet filled with dark brown floral designs, and in front of the elevator, a large see-through glass window that showed the heights of the condo, buildings with tiny lights flickering back at him in the dark. 

"wait 'till you see what's inside of our room." stephen mumbles in his ear and hosuh almost jumps as his low voice purrs through his thoughts. "stop whispering in my ear, it's creepy." he mumbles back, giving a gentle smack against the taller male's chest, who lets out a rumble of laughter from his throat.

daniel, who was the one leading the group towards their stay of the night, had stopped in front of one of the many doors lined along the hallway, digging out from underneath the pocket of his coat, two fingers pinching around a small plastic card that hosuh eyes at curiously. a soft ding of approval rang and the door was unlocked, as the green haired male swiped the card across one of the sensors of the handle to the door, pushing against it and bright lights flooded from the room and out into the dim hallway. 

"the main room's going to be squeaky clean, but the further you investigate into the room, the messier it'll get." jay warns, head briefly craning around towards hosuh and stephen who were following right on his tail. 

hosuh braces himself, for what might is about to come as he nears the opened door, though curiousity gets the best of him as he takes a small step into the room, eyes glazing around the enormously large room that probably didn't even look like a condo room, and it couldn't be compared to what his tiny apartment room back near merque was. the room was indeed squeaky clean, almost bright white that could make your eyes squint at the brightness. the room was entirely surrounded by large clear-stained windows, and a whole view of buildings could be seen in the dark, lights flickering with different colors, on and off. 

"alright, start explaining." daniel's voice makes hosuh turn his head towards the male with radiant lime green hair, whose tall and big, and slightly intimidating, frame was leaned against one of the cream walls, near the ridiculously huge flat-screen tv. 

"can't we wait until morning? we've had a rough night." jay sighs, throwing himself onto the soft and welcoming warm cushions of the sofa, burying his face in one of the pillows. daniel lets out an even bigger sigh, walking up towards where the blonde was sprawled across the couch, briefly grabbbing a pillow in his own hands and thwacking jay on the head with it, making him yell out a profanity, sitting up and shooting a glare at daniel who remains unbothered, arms crossed against his chest. "it's already morning, if you couldn't tell." he says, a thumb jabbing up towards the clock whose short handle was slowly ticking second by second. 

"where do you want us to begin?" stephen says from beside hosuh, whose arm had now begun to lower off of his shoulder, leaning against the wodden kitchen table that was neatly oriented with wine glasses along with shiny plates that shone as if they were bright new, with silverware that gleamed underneath the lights. 

"well, you could begin by introducing me to the silver haired boy, or should he do it himself?" daniel counters back, raising an eyebrow at him.

multiple stares could be felt trained on his body and hosuh has never felt so exposed before, though he clears his throat, attempting to be somewhat presentable, though the nervous wreck in his mind and the multiple uneven strands of messy silver on his head proved to be harder to do so. "i'm gloss." 

"he's an innocent." jay blurts out from the couch and hosuh shoots him a disbelieving look. 

"what?" the blonde says. "it was pretty obvious, even from the first night we met, even stephen knew." 

"and you didn't tell me?" he asks, abruptly turning around to face stephen whose violet eyes glimmered with slight amusement. 

"well, for the sake of you not freaking out, we didn't, because we knew you'd react this way, sooner enough and probably even more freaked out than right now." the purple haired male shrugs. 

"it's no surprise though." daniel pipes up and hosuh finds himself swirling his head back towards the green haired male, whose posture is now more slightly relaxed. 

"oh my god, even you?" hosuh raises his arms in exasperation and belief and though it was hard to believe, daniel's shoulders begun to shake, as his head was thrown against the wall, lips bubbling out with childish laughter and hosuh feels himself raising an eyebrow questioningly at the laughing male.

"you're quite oblivious and naive, i guess that's what makes you an innocent." daniel finally says, shooting a small smile at hosuh and suddenly the cold and intimidating aura around the green haired male begun to melt into a warm and more calm childish-like demeanour. 

"you're not going to send me back, right?" he asks, voice slightly wavering in fear and the calm green in daniel's eyes shifted to a more concerned look. 

"no, god, no. we would never do that. we got you out of that hellhole, there's no way we're sending you back." stephen quickly pipes up from behind him and hosuh feels himself being pulled back, the familiar warm gentle and reassuring grip around his wrist pulls him, making his back gently collide with the purple haired male's warm and broad chest. 

"yeah, we would never." jay hums in agreement, sunset red eyes flickering towards the green haired male. "right, daniel?" 

"of course, not. i'm not that hellish of a demon to send you back there. though you are going to have to explain to me everything starting from scratch. the more you explain, the more i'm willing for you to let you crash with us for the night." he says, a hand coming up to ruffle the messy nest of green hair, tired lime green eyes meeting hosuh's ones. "so start explaining." 

**｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈•ﾟ｡**

daniel had been quietly listening, making no interruptions as jay and stephen, and sometimes even hosuh, took turns explaining their turn of events that winded up at the same location, a small tiny club, merque. starting off with hosuh working as a bartender, and jay and stephen spending the night with him, followed by the unfortunate series of events involving being chased down by men in suits, barely making it out alive from that tiny dark alleyway. they wrapped up the story of them stumbling paths with each other as fate had wound up the three of them together, with the sun now beginning to peek out from the horizon, it was now indeed, morning, the start of a new day. 

meanwhile of them doing that, hosuh asked daniel for where the first-aid-kit was, in hopes to treat stephen's injury better. thankfully, there was one, and he quickly began sorting his priorities straight with treating and cleaning stephen's wound with rubbing alcohol. the male winced every now and then, biting his tongue whenever he felt as if sharp needles were pricking his wound though he found slight comfort when the silver haired boy offered his hand to hold. he would be lying if he didn't pretend to squeeze his fingers around the innocent's hand tightly, even if he wasn't in pain. 

"you can let go of my hand now." gloss whispers, blue eyes flickering back to him, a few locks of silver brushing past his shoulder, coming undone from his messy low ponytail. "i don't think you'll need stitches, by the looks of it, it should heal soon if you clean the bandages every now and then, considering that the wound isn't so deep." 

"will you help me?" stephen murmurs, eyes trained on their intertwined fingers that slowly began to slip away from its hold. 

"i believe you're capable of doing that yourself, or are you just silently asking for an answer for me to say yes?" the boy uses his now-free hand to tuck a lock of hair behind his ear. 

"that's a secret for me to keep and for you to find out." he says, exchanging small secret smiles with the silver haired boy whose eyes beamed up at him. 

"alright, gloss, i'll let you crash over for the night, maybe a few nights or so." daniel's voice emerges out from the lingering silence, snapping hosuh's head back to attention at the green haired male. "sorry about having a somewhat bad impression, but allow me to introduce myself, i'm daniel." the male says, smiling as he walks toward hosuh, extending out a palm. 

"i've heard." he replies, gently placing his hand in the palm of daniel, a firm warm handshake exchanged between the two. 

"sorry about what these two idiots had to put you through," he adds, receiving a two 'heys' from said two males. 

"i should be more thankful, those two saved my life." hosuh says, a small smile crinkling in his eyes. "though, i don't suppose murdering people is part of your job? the two of them did the job rather quickly and skillfully, not by any chance, would you all have more than blood on your hands by getting jobs done?" he asks, raising an eyebrow in curiousity.

"we can't specify what our job really is, since it varies, but you can consider it being out of the ordinary, i'm hoping you won't have a problem with that?" jay says from the couch, an arm resting on his chin as his gleaming eyes bored into hosuh's ones in amusement. 

"no, at least not yet." he purrs, a small playful smile tugging on the corner of his lips as he cocks his head a bit to the side. "unless you threaten me with a knife, then yes, we will have problems." 

"alright, enough flirting with knives against your throats." daniel cuts in. "though, gloss, if you don't mind me asking, is there anyone else in your family member whose also an innocent?" 

the question makes hosuh hesitate for a moment. should he tell them? but what good would that do, he didn't even know if his sister was still alive or not, let alone his mother. would telling them benefit the situation or just make it worse? surely only three of them couldn't take down a whole gang of men in suits just to reunite him and his family back. 

"i have a sister.." he blurts out, sentence trailing off as his mouth betrays his thoughts. "she's been taken away, along with my mother." he feels the vivid memory flashing in his eyes again, the same horrid picture practically tattooed, replaying it over and over again, making him relive the moment as if it was just yesterday, the pure fear in his sister's eyes, her fresh screams telling him to run and never look back. "it's been seven years." he finished, his voice quiet as his gaze tears away from daniel, staring at the white marble floor instead. 

"i'm sorry to hear that," daniel mutters, voice quiet as well. "i suppose you're the only one who managed out?" 

"yeah, though i guess i won't manage very much longer, considering i almost was caught earlier." hosuh says with a laughing huff, though his laughter son quickly died on his tongue a few seconds later. 

"i assure you we won't let that happen." daniel says, eyes turning soft with reassurance. "we'll even help you find your family, if you trust us enough." 

the statement makes hosuh raise an eyebrow. "it's not too much of a bother for you? i assume you've already had enough blood on your hands, what good will doing that bring?"

"sure, we've gotten our hands dirty, with our jobs, i don't see the bad in dirtying our already bloody hands more." the green haired male says in a scoff, though his tired green eyes flickered away from hosuh's gaze. "we're actually stuck in kind of a similar situation as you."

the sentence leaving from daniel's lips makes hosuh's heart soared in hopefulness, his hand slightly twitching anxiously as he waited silently for the male to continue his sentence. said male, raises an arm to rub his face and hosuh almost feels bad for him, with the way his tired eyes that were usually bright lime green were now dull and dim. "i.. have a brother." he says in a quiet voice. "his name is elias, and he's an innocent." 

"oh my god, dan i—" hosuh's sentence was cut off by daniel waving his hand, a tired smile painting on his lips. "it's alright. he's been missing around the same time as your sister was, i'm assuming, i'm still trying to get in contact with him. he's alive thankfully, but i guess he's not holding up too well. but if he's alive and taken around the same time your sister was, i'm positive your sister is holding up just as fine." 

the sentence makes his heart leap in the air, relief flooding through his veins and he suddenly feels dizzy as he's hit with this new wave of information. his sister, missing seven years now, and is still alive? the chances of that were so slim yet he's blessed with this horrible tiny luck that made him able to wake up in a cold sweat every night with the dreading thought of his sister slipping away from his fingers. 

"do you trust us enough to let us help you?" daniel says, voice breaking through his thoughts. 

"i don't think there's any way of me going back." hosuh says, smiling. "i trust you." 

"you're making deals with the devil." stephen mumbles out, making hosuh swivel his head to turn towards the purple haired male leaning against the kitchen table in the same position, arms tucked inside the pocket of his jeans. 

"so, where do we start?" jay says, finally standing up from the couch and stretching his arms. 

"glad you asked." daniel says, the fire in his bright green eyes lighting up once again as he digs something out from the pocket of his shirt, and a small glimpse in the corner of hosuh's eyes, he could see daniels fingers wrapped around a somewhat tiny cube, somewhat resembling a rubik's cube, though made out of shiny metal shining and reflecting off the lights underneath it. he watches in curiousity as the green haired male throws the cube onto the kitchen table, the tiny cube colliding against the table with a loud 'clink' and sliding near towards where stephen was. 

immediately, a large blue light illuminated through the room, the tiny cube projecting a somewhat like diagram of a map, blue see-through lines coloring the walls and hosuh watched with amazement, body frozen in trance as the digital map painted in the air slowly moves towards where their location currently was and indeed, a small white pin digitally printed onto a large blue target reading: _burnhem, the condo._

"amazing, isn't it? the year 2019 with its amazing high quality tech. i'm assuming you haven't seen this level of high tech before, but somehow i managed to get my hands on it." daniel says as an answer to hosuh's silent question.

"i'm hoping you didn't dig to get that high tech that would make your hands dirty." hosuh says, turning around and raising a playful eyebrow at daniel who shrugs, smiling at him. "i can neither confirm nor deny that statement." 

"jay, since you asked the question, why don't you take a guess of where we'll be starting off our mission?" daniel says, green hair swishing around to face the blonde who purses his lips into a straight thin line, hands digging inside his pockets before fishing out a somewhat like sharp pin that is unmistakenly a dart, and hosuh wonders for a brief second where on earth he got his hands on that, and how many dangerous weapons must be hiding underneath the man's clothes. 

swiftly, jay throws a hand out, dart flinging through the air and piercing through the somewhat like holagraphic map and onto the wall, the dart sticking out as its needle had implanted itself firmly onto the beige wall, bits of it falling to the floor. for a moment, hosuh looks at where the dart had landed, through the holagram and he narrows his eyes as he realizes the dreading truth. 

"merque?" he says out loud, not wanting to believe that the dart had landed there out of all places. "you're asking for a death wish." he says, raising an eyebrow at jay whose arms were crossed against his chest. 

"no, jay is right. merque is the first place where we should start off, as dangerous as it seems. obviously the people looking for you who have took your sister and my brother, is coming after you next. wherever you'll go, they'll follow, you're their next target. it's no doubt that in no time they'll start invading the club where you work at, that's where we can get our answers from." daniel says, confirms hosuh's dreading statement.

jay lets out a loud snicker. "i guess we're not so dumb after all, are we, lim? we've cornered the cunts right into the palm of our hands, right where we want them. instead of lecturing me when we're alone, you should be thanking me and stephen for making your job a tad bit easier." 

a pair of green eyes were rolled at jay's smug smirk. "don't think i'm letting you off the hook that easily, _ko._ " daniel spits, voice filled with venom. "rather than 2 weeks under curfew, i'm letting you go with only 1 week under my supervision, and no, you are not allowed to bring any sort of makeshift weapon with you and i will personally stab you with whatever sharp object you manage to sneak underneath your clothes." 

it surprises hosuh, with the way daniel is so quick to reject the unspoken offers, though he could guess that the green haired male had spent a lot of time with jay and stephen, considering how well he knows them. 

"i'm assuming you've already laid out a full-proof plan?" hosuh asks. "one step inside the club and i'm hoping you'll guarentee the safety of myself." 

"don't worry." stephen pipes up from behind him, head tilted to the side as his blue eyes met violet ones. "we've got your back, we'll keep you safe. we've already saved you, the damoiseau in distress, and we'll do it again." 

the sudden 'damsel in distress' though replaced with the male version but said in french from stephen's lips made hosuh's eyes glimmer with amusement, and he feels slightly reassured, trusting that he'll be safe in the hands of these three men he had just met the past few nights when fate had intertwined their paths for an unknown but good reason. 

"besides," jay says, blonde bangs falling in front of his face as he pushes them back with his hand, sunset-red eyes boring into hosuh's crystal blue ones. "can't call it a death wish if we're the ones making it out alive." 

**✩°̥࿐୨୧**

"so, you're telling me that helper subject number 251 is found dead, along with three other men who i had once considered high armed men were also found beside his body." a low dark voice that could send chills down your spine murmured, palms resting against his chin as the room fell silent around him.

"yes, sir." 

"useless information." the man spat, dark eyes wildly searching around the room with rage. "you're dismissed." 

once the door had closed shut, now leaving the man alone in the darkness, he stood up and in a fiery pit of rage, begun to sweep the things that were neatly piled on his desk, off and onto the floor, multiple papers briefly floating in the air before slowly lowering towards the ground. the man heaved, his shoulders raised and lowered a few times before he took in a deep breath, calming himself down as he runs a hand through his hair, sweeping the messy strands of hair back.

"impressive," he mutters to himself, sitting back down, not bothering to pick up the multiple objects and piles of papers spreaded across the floor. "and i would've thought i would be the one who would've got their hands dirty by blowing helper 251's brains out." 

"looks like i have to look at the bigger picture here, these people asking to make deals with the devil, i'll show them what real hell feels like." he continues, voice dropping an octave lower as his dark eyes flickered over towards the messy piles of papers strewn across the floor. he gently kneels down on one knee, picking one of the files up that were still collected into a pile, by a small paperclip. the corner of his dry lips tugged into a small smirk as his eyes quickly skimmed over the words printed on the paper. 

he calmly stood back up, placing the pile of papers back on his desk neatly. his eyes were still fixed on it, the black and white ink coloring the paper, with exact coordinates of a specific location, along with a large image from one of the security cameras of the familiar bright sign reading, **merque** , followed by another image, a young boy whose hair was tied into a low ponytail, hand pushing against the door of the club.

" _hosuh lee_ ," the man almost purrs, name easily rolling off the tip of his tongue. "i'll get my hands on you sooner or later, with what little luck you have left, let's see how long you'll keep up this game of tag, once _i'm_ it." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !! [NOT PROOFREAD]: i'm not really that proud of this chapter (i'm sorry writers block sucks) but i wanted to take a quick break from all the action and drama to appreciate each character's relationships with each other :')) though i promise this will probably one of the last fluffy chapters as the real angsty drama begins to stir up, be prepared for my horrid long writing for next chapter ;0 (also yes haha the lil high tech cube thing is not real in this year though i wish it were real in the year 2023 or something that would be pretty cool,, google maps seems to hate me everytime i open the damn thing) ALSO ANOTHER ALSO i feel like im teasing everyone with hosuh not exposing his name yet but i sweAR (and yes you can beat me up for this if i don't make up to my promise that) hosuh's name will be revealed vERrrY soon :D so pls wait with me a little longer <3


	5. don't call him angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> — ❝ thousands and countless possibilities of 'what if' scenarios,  
> who will ever know which will come true? ❞

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (PT 1): a more shorter easy-going fluff chapter (to prepare you for the next one) ;)

> "we head out at 10." 

daniel's voice rung out loudly across the room, voice bouncing off the marble white tiles of the floor and echoing throughout everyone's ears as lights were out. it had been around 7:30 in the morning when they had wrapped up everything and needless to say, hosuh felt extremely exhausted. stephen, by his side, could probably sense it, by the way his locks of silver had brushed past his shoulders before jerking back up along with his head that had nodded several times almost into the depths of unconsciousness. 

"sorry, we didn't think that we'd have another guest joining us for the night, and the bedrooms aren't as tidy as we'd hope it would be." daniel says, emerging out from the bathroom door, dressed in a more simple wear, a soft pink sweater along with grey sweatpants, in which hosuh only assumed to be the male's normal nightwear to sleep. 

"it's alright. i'd probably get no sleep at all if i were to suddenly crash at someone's house uninvited. i'm guessing i'll be spending the night somewhere else?" hosuh replies, eyes slowly beginning to feel heavy as he gives a tired smile, trying to look as awake as possible. 

"i asked jay to grab the most comfortable pillows for you, i'm sorry we couldn't do much. you wouldn't mind sleeping on the couch just for one night, do you?" 

though barely comprehending the sentence with his mind all fogged up and drugged up on tiredness, hosuh shook his head. 

a few seconds passed by and he was surely confident he would knock out cold with his face against the cold marble floor, a familiar messy blonde makes his way out from one of the rooms, carrying a _bunch_ of fluffy pillows, arms tightly gripping around the cushions as jay sticks his head around them, a small tiny smile on his face that makes hosuh's heart melt in adoration. "i hope these will be enough?" jay says sheepishly, plopping the mountain of pillows onto the couch.

"i'm pretty sure that's more than enough, i'd say." hosuh manages to say, cracking a smile. "i could probably build a whole pillow fort out of that." 

"do welcome me once you actually do that." daniel snickers, stretching his limbs as he lets out a yawn. "well, i guess i'll see you at.. night?" he mumbles, eyes glancing briefly at the clock before nodding his head in confirmation. "10 pm sharp, nobody forget or else the first thing you'll see once you wake up is me choking you with a pillow." he finishes, tone slightly hard as he glances at jay and stephen, though his eyes softened once green lime orbs met bright blue ones. 

"yes, yes, we understand mother." jay mumbles rolling his eyes, and it was only until then, that hosuh had realised the blonde had also changed into his night clothes, seemingly adorable silky white shirt with blue stripes matching his pants as well, and if you could squint hard enough, you could see the tiny little yellow ducks embroided onto the pyjamas, a detail that makes hosuh raise his head (along with his eyebrows) to jay who fidgets nervously upon feeling the silence gaze trained on him. 

"you might want to change. i don't think sleeping in your clothes right now would be comfortable." jay presses on, shuffling towards the couch and plopping himself on it, hands grabbing out childishly to a large fluffy pillow to hide his nightwear. 

the sudden statement makes hosuh's eyes break away from the intense staring as he looks down at his very messy rumpled up clothes that were slightly covered with dirt, making him grimace in disgust. 

"since jay is a dumbass who forgot to lend you one of his clothes, i'll go get it for you. in size, you're comparibly smaller than me, so i guess digging through one of jay's smaller clothes would fit you." stephen pipes up, body coming off of the kitchen table as he walks off into one of the multiple unknown rooms hosuh is yet to find out about, leaving him and jay alone. 

"normally when we three spend the night together, one of us has to sleep on the couch, considering the bedroom only has two beds, and since you're here on this night, it's technically my turn to spend the night on the couch, so i'm hoping you won't mind me sleeping somewhat next to you." the blonde finally says, breaking the ice between them. 

"i don't mind." hosuh replies, a hand coming up to his head as he gently tugs the hairtie holding his messy low ponytail off, multiple wisps of moonlight coming undone, tumbling down and brushing against the silver haired boy's delicate face, and jay could only watch in pure amazement, forgetting what breathing is as the bartender uses a hand to comb through the messy knots, if there even were knots, considering how smooth and silky his hair seemed. 

soft pairs of footsteps drummed across the tiles and it m akes him snap out of his thoughts, eyes flickering over to stephen who emerges out into the light, feet coming to a halt as his violet eyes found itself stuck on the boy in front of him, blue soft eyes shyly glancing up at him as bangs of silver fell over them and _holy shit_ stephen thinks he might just be in heaven. 

"the clothes..?" a soft voice breaks through his trance and stephen finds himself shaking his head, warmth creeping up his neck as he realises how long he stared for and how much of a weirdo the bartender probably thinks of him right now. 

"clothes.." stephen mumbles underneath his breath and it takes a second for the words to register in his brain and the moment it does, he wants to slap a hand across his face, cheeks noticeably flaming hot as he abruptly shoves the neat piles of clothes into the silver haired boy's hands, who takes it gratefully, though slightly startled as stephen quickly blurts out "i'll see you around 10." before turning around and sauntering back into the room in a slightly awkward way than he usually walks. 

hosuh subconsciously tightens his grip around the soft fabric around his arms as his eyes worriedly trailed after the last glimpses of stephen as he disappears inside one of the room before looking down and revealing stephen's choice of nightwear for him. a simple neat pastel blue hoodie that pleases his eyes, as it was his favorite color, along with black sweatpants. he glances back at jay, who quickly turns his head away, from the moment their eyes met, making hosuh raise an eyebrow in confusion, though he's too tired at this point to question anything as he blindly walks towards one of the many rooms, opening and closing each door that at least indicate some sort of sign that resembled a bathroom. 

"it's to your right." jay's voice emerges out from the silence and it makes hosuh's face flush in embarrassment, internally cringing at himself as it was the exact door he was about to head to. sucking in a deep breath, his hand raises up to rest upon the silver shiny handle of the door, before twisting it and making his way inside, shutting the door behind him with his body as he slowly slid down to the floor, burying his head into the soft fabric in his arms, feeling his face beginning to heat up. 

though the stench of dirt in his clothes make him raise his head immediately, recollecting his fallen ego as he stands up and begins to change, staring at his reflection once the new soft fabric was now practically drapped around his body. the shirt stephen gave him was so oversized to the point where he was literally drowning in it, and it was only until then as hosuh rummages a hand through his hair, that his fingers are _also_ drowning, giving him sweater paws. the sweatpants were no relief whatsoever, as the legs were slightly longer than he'd expect it to be, waistband too big for his tiny waist, so he had to resort to using his hairtie to tie a tight knot around the waistband, in order to not walk out the bathroom butt-naked. 

puffing his cheeks out, he lowers the oversized blue hoodie to cover the noticeable bulge (it's not what you think it is) from the tied waistband, neatly folding his dirty clothes as he unlocks the door and steps out, eyes immediately locking on towards the spikey hair of blonde on the couch, scrolling through his phone. he quietly makes his way around, setting his pile of clothes onto the kitchen table, not knowing where else to put it as he hesitantly heads towards the couch, and instantly a pair of sunset-red eyes trailed from hosuh's head to his toes and it could only make him shift uncomfortably as he plopped on the opposite side of the couch, sweater paws gripping around the fluffy pillow that was raised to slightly cover his cotton candy pink cheeks. 

"you're.. small." is the first thing that leaves jay's lips and it doesn't help the blooming red dusting on his cheeks. 

"no i'm average height, you're just too giant." hosuh retorts back, throwing the huge fluffy pillow towards jay's direction though the tiny strength he had mustered didn't make an attempt to hurt jay whatsoever as the blonde easily catched the pillow in his hands, glancing back at hosuh with a raised eyebrow, a small smile tugging on the corner of his lips.

"don't laugh." he threatens, grabbing another pillow and setting it down on the couch next to him, lying down and curling his legs into his arms as he stubbornly turns his head away from jay, to face the couch. 

"i'm not, i'm not." jay says defensively, though the small chuckle in his sentence proves him wrong. 

hosuh lets out a soft sigh, feeling himself drowning in the soft hoodie that so pleasantly smelled like jay and stephen at the same time, along with the fluffy cushion beneath his head, he felt at peace, as if he was floating on clouds as his eyelids beginning to droop even underneath the bright lights as comforting silence slowly begins to ease into the room. 

"goodnight, gloss." jay quietly murmurs, though loud enough for hosuh to hear as he feels himself nod off to sleep, lights dimming down, small streaks of sun peeking out from behind the curtains, resembling somewhat as a night light as hosuh unconsciously mumbles a "goodnight, jay." in return as he feels himself slipping into the world of darkness, consuming him whole. 

**｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈•ﾟ｡**

jay doesn't know how long he has been awake, and honestly, he isn't even sure when was the last time he had slept peacefully. it's not like he had insomnia or anything, he thinks. he rarely feels tired at all, his eyelids barely even feeling heavy or droopy as his eyes gazed upon the silver haired boy whose face had turned to face him, eyes closed and chest heaving up and down slowly, messy bangs of hair falling over his face that he so badly wants to brush away. 

perhaps the instinct in his gut practically eating him alive finally allows him to, as he carefully shifts against the couch to sit up and make his way towards the sleeping innocent, careful to make as little noise possible. 

his eyes soften as he sat on the floor, right in front of the sleeping boy who seemed to be in deep unconsciousness, not seeming to notice jay's prescence, and it's times like these that jay's grateful that the boy is a heavy sleeper, a lanky hand coming to tuck locks of silver behind the bartender's ears, eyes tracing over the delicate features of his face. long dainty eyelashes that decorated around the rim of his closed eyes, his small boopy nose, to his soft pink lips that makes his eyes lock onto them, as if he was put onto a magical trance as he was unable to tear his gaze away from. 

though apparently small movements stirring from the sleeping boy made him snap out of the trance as his eyes flickered towards the bartender whose eyebrows furrowed, though his eyes remained closed as his body shifted uncomfortably, sweater paws hooking underneath his calves as he tries to curl himself into a tiny ball. 

maybe he's cold, jay thinks as he gently reaches a hand towards the innocent, cupping one of his soft tender cheeks into the palm of his hand, who seemingly leans in towards the gentle touch. that probably confirmed his guess, stephen always did say he had unusual high body warmth for someone smaller than him, but nonetheless, he indulged in the moment, using what little luck he managed to have to caress the boy's cheeks, sometimes resisting the urge to squeeze and knead them, in fear of waking him up. 

that probably escalated to a bad idea he didn't even know could happen as the silver haired boy leaned in so much to his touch to the point where his head had fallen off of the pillow and the couch, and collided into his chest, messy silver hair rubbing against the warmth and it makes jay freeze up, a hand slightly raised in the air as he forgets to breathe, having this much close proximity he didn't think he could ever have between him and the bartender, yet here he was, almost cradling the boy in his arms, his head leaning against his own chest, and mind you, hosuh was still very deep in his sleep. 

with gentle care, jay shifts his own body onto the couch, gently placing the silver haired boy's head onto his lap, who seems to have stopped stirring in his sleep as a small sweater paw comes to gently clutch around jay's silky pyjamas, and he finds it so hard not to coo at the sleeping boy. he finds himself lost again, his body controlling himself rather than his own mind as his fingers begin to tangle itself in the boy's soft silvery moonlight locks. 

he probably lost count of time, of how many seconds, minutes, or perhaps even hours he had spent like that, in that same position, fingers never wanting to leave the innocent's hair as the sun begins to reveal itself upon the horizon, painting the once black night sky into a bright orange, cotton candy clouds appearing once again as they parted way for beams of sunlight to shine through the curtains of the room. and for once in a long time, jay feels content, feeling drowsy off an unknown feeling his heart has never felt before. it was as if the tips of his fingers were melting into a warm gooey puddle, just like his heart as he begins to feel his head starting to nod off, eyelids feeling heavy as he finally succumbs to the feeling, eyes closed shut, with fingers still entangled in the bartender's silver locks as the clock slowly ticks by until he could only hear silence ringing in his ears. 

another not so peaceful sound rings through his ears once again and annoyedly, he glares towards the direction of the sound, tired eyes realising that it was only his phone buzzing from across the sofa, his so called annoying alarm ringing signalling that it was near 10 pm sharp, he had to get ready, though he finds it hard to do so as he forgets a heavy weight against his lap prevents him from doing so and it makes waves of memories crash down at him as he realises the events that had just occured last night, with the sleeping boy who had started shifting awake through his sleep, jay freezes up yet again. 

messy strands of silver poked out in random hectic places as hosuh arises from his slumber, yawning as he uses a sweater paw to rub against his eyes tiredly, yet to notice the male beside him visibly tensing. he finally does, as he turns around to meet wide sunset red eyes boring into his and he finds himself staring at the blonde, several questions ringing in his head though his mouth finds it unable to form sentences as eerie silence falls between the two. 

"goodmorning, or wait, goodnight—? mind telling me how you went to sleep on the opposite side of gloss and woke up literally next to him?" a new voice arises and both of their heads snap up towards a purple haired male, a toothbrush in his mouth as he raises an eyebrow, messy tufts of violet falling over his questioning eyes. 

"we have to leave soon." jay blurts out, immediately standing up from next to hosuh, not bothering to spare him a single glance as he quickly heads towards the bathroom, leaving stephen and him in the same room, a pair of violet eyes meeting crystal blue ones and immediately hosuh finds himself looking away from the sight of the taller male, only noticing until now that his nightwear consisted of _very_ revealing clothes, only a black tanktop that clearly showed his slightly built figure, biceps showing and prominent collarbone peeking out and very baggy grey joggers.

instead, his eyes flickered over towards the clock slowly ticking, the only sound of the shorter handle making noise throughout the silence. it was around 5pm, with the sun that was once peeking over the horizon, now slowly setting just beneath the clouds, painting the sky a pinkish-orange color, a color slightly resembling jay's eyes.

"did you sleep okay?" stephen asks, the first to break the silence, though his question is slightly muffled as his hand continues to move side to side, toothbrush still in his mouth. hosuh could only nod. indeed he was feeling less tired than before when he didn't get rest, though the sleepy drunk off feeling high off his brain was kicking in, in after effects of sleeping too much, and without getting up in the middle of the night to get a quick sip of water for the first time in a while, his voice couldn't muster out enough energy to form sentences out of his lips. even if he tried to, his words would probably end up jumbled together, mumbling incoherent words with a raspy voice that made him look like he had just arisen from the dead. 

"catch." 

and before he could even register the words in his brain, his tired blue eyes quickly shot wide in alarm as he sees a glimpse of the purple haired male throwing a water bottle at him, in which he catches in his hands, slightly fumbling with it though he quickly regains himself, shooting a small smile in gratitude, strands of silver fell over his face. 

he takes a small sip, downing the cold water in his throat, and he suddenly feels more refreshed and awake. at the same time, the bathroom door swings open once again and out steps jay, blonde hair sticking out in random places, and a small bright pink hairtie tying his long bangs up into a small front ponytail, face dripping wet from water splashed onto, he heads into one of the mysterious rooms without sparing both of them a glance, only waving a hand up in the air.

"say one word about me and i'll shut your mouths with hot glue." 

across from hosuh, stephen stifles out a small chuckle before heading into the open bathroom door and washing his foamy mouth with water, wiping his mouth with a towel nearby and coming out shortly, jabbing a thumb towards the now vacant room while shoving his other hand in the pockets of his joggers. "bathroom is yours." 

before he could even open his mouth to ask about the new clothes he was going to wear tonight (if they even prepared any), stephen waved a hand in reassurance. "new clothes are already on the toilet seat. belt's there too if the pants are too big for you. just don't fall asleep in the shower or anything like jay did that one time, we still gotta head at least an hour earlier before 10." the purple haired male adds, and hosuh nods, the words echoing off his mind in order to not forget as he stands up and makes a beeline towards the bathroom. 

he's pretty sure he didn't even take that much time in the bathroom but as he steps out, (wearing a very baggy but soft wooly pastel pink sweater, along with a light white buttoned up shirt beneath it all, probably another layer added to consideration since tonight was supposed to be a bit chilly. and comfortable black baggy pants that stopped just right below his ankles, a small simple black leather belt holding the whole outfit together, and who could forget his iconic silver hair tied into a low ponytail, hanging around his shoulder.) he already sees the three vibrant color haired males, blonde, violet, and lime green, already sitting on the couch, with stephen scrolling through his phone, tongue slightly sticking out of his mouth in boredom as he leans against the arm of the couch. and beside him, dan and jay who were quietly discussing something in hushed whispers. 

yet to acknowledge hosuh's prescence, he takes the time to quickly analyze their very different styles of fashion of tonight, starting with stephen, who wears a simple black t-shirt, bright red stripes decorating the short sleeves and along the sides. as if it couldn't get worse, to add with the black edgyness, he also wears tight black ripped jeans, and to top it all off, a small silver chain hangs around one of the pockets. 

meanwhile, jay whose arms are tucked comfortably in the pockets of a long beige coat, wearing a light grey turtleneck, along with white jeans. and beside him, daniel whose dressed in a navy blue long sleeved shirt, a wooly white sweater beneath it. long baggy dark blue pants matched his shirt, along with a slim white belt, it's long ends hanging out and it was only until then, that he felt heavy 3 pair of eyes trained on his frame by the bathroom door. 

"nice." daniel hoots out, a long soft whistle bouncing off the marble white tiles and hosuh feels his face visibly flush the same shade as his sweater, nervously tugging the ends of the baggy pastel pink sweater down in embarrassment. 

"it's already 7, we need to go grab something to eat to fill ourselves up. i'm pretty sure you're going to need a lot of carbs to burn since we're probably going to be running a lot tonight." stephen says, shoving his phone into the pocket of his jeans. "but first," he trails off, body coming off of the couch as he approaches him, fishing out a somewhat like small tube in the glimpse of his blue eyes. "you're gonna have to cover that mark of yours with this." the purple haired male finishes, dumping the thing in hosuh's extended palm.

he raises an eyebrow at the cylinder transparent tube, peachy-beige filling it's contents and it finally hits him that it was a concealer that stephen had just handed him. 

"where did you get this?" he mumbles underneath his breath, prying the cap off with slight struggle as he gently applies the creamy substance onto his wrist, occassionally blowing on it to make it dry faster, then painting another new coat over it, just in case. 

"it's from my sister." stephen replies and it makes hosuh glance up, unexpected by the answer as he nods slowly, about to hand the concealer back to stephen, or back to stephen's sister, though a hand comes to gently stop him. "it's yours to keep." the taller male says, purple hair falling over his eyes as his hand comes to curl hosuh's fingers around the concealer tightly. "consider it as a gift."

"thank you." he says, heart swelling up with warmth. "tell your sister too i said thank you." 

"i will." stephen says with a smile.

"alright, time for my gift." jay's voice broke through their momentarily sweet short moment, making stephen step back, allowing the blonde to step forward and hosuh instinctively extends his empty palms out once again, not before tucking the concealer in the very deep of the back pockets of his jeans. a more slightly heavier object was placed into his hands and his eyes widened upon seeing the black bulky object, and upon blue eyes tracing along the trigger he lets out a small gasp. 

"a gun?"

"a stun gun, to be exact, also known as a taser." jay quickly corrects him, though it didn't really reassure hosuh whatsoever as a dangerous weapon was placed into his now sweaty hands.

"you're giving him a weapon to kill someone as a gift?" daniel snorts from a few feet away from them and in this moment of time hosuh could only agree with the green haired male in silence.

"better be safe than unprepared." jay retorts back. "although we did promise to protect you to the best of our abilities, i'd feel much more reassured if you have this in your hands, y'know, in case anything bad happens you can protect yourself. just don't accidentally tase yourself or anything." he mutters at the last part and it makes hosuh let out a small smile, gratefully and carefully stuffing the surprise weapon in his pocket as well. 

"alright let's roll out now." daniel says, clapping his hands loudly. "chop, chop, we don't got all day— well er, night, c'mon." he says, shooing the trio out towards the door and hosuh fondly notices the way stephen and jay roll their eyes at the green haired male's mother-like behavior, which he finds oddly endearing. 

"wait, don't you guys need to prepare like.. weapons or anything? you all seem pretty empty handed.. unless you're all hiding ticking time bombs underneath your clothes?" he asks, turning around to face stephen and jay, his blue eyes flickering to daniel last, who closes the door behind all of them and double-checking that he had locked the room. 

"my my, you've already caught onto our antics." daniel tsks, a hand coming up to comb through the strands of lime green hair. "well if i'm going to be blunt about this, stephen and jay probably have the basic small weapons, like a gun or some switchblades, but that's probably about it. i trust them enough with their self defense skills to defend themselves and you included, but if that's not enough i'll secure you guys at the top." 

the statement makes hosuh raise an eyebrow warily, when daniel mentioned him being at the 'top.' 

though daniel must have noticed his confused expression for his lips tugged into a slanted smile. "i'm a sniper." he whispers, a wink delivered at the end and it makes hosuh's eyes widened, a small gasp escaping out of his lips.

"he brags about it like it's the most interesting thing in the world, but he has terrible aim." stephen says from beside him, looking at his neatly trimmed nails in boredom.

"watch your tongue stephen, or my next target will be to snipe your head open." daniel threatens.

with sharp tongues and hearty insults along with playful eye-rolls, the four of them head down by the elevator (hosuh occassionaly squeezing stephen's fingers as it gently brushed his own, in reassurance from the boy being claustrophobic) and out of the condo, into the cold chilly night, and towards the black van. 

"after you, gloss." stephen says, dramatically bowing as he slides the door of the van open for hosuh to step in first, in which he gladly does, muffling a small chuckle to himself. in the corner of his eye as he plops himself down on the seat, he notices a black motorcycle, and if it weren't for the lights in the car that had briefly flashed in the dark, he wouldn't have known as it completely blended in with the background. 

"what's up with the motorcycle?" he asks, eyes still trained on the sharp edges of the motorcycle, black shiny and polished as if it were brand new. he was surprised that he hadn't seen it before when he first got in honestly, though maybe it was because he was too tense earlier to crane his neck around to see. 

"surprise emergencies." jay says as he scoots closer towards him, closing the door behind him shut. 

"wait so, you do have a plan, right?" hosuh says, concern lacing in his voice as his eyebrows slanted downwards in slight fear. if he so manages to get captured by the men in suits, he swears he's going to curse all three of their names even in his last breath. 

"well, technically we do. but most of the times when we stick to the plan, things just don't go our way, so we just go with the flow." daniel says, turning the car engine on, the headlights flickering on as he began driving out of the parking lot. 

"there's no plan a or plan b or even a plan c?" hosuh sputters out in disbelief and beside him, stephen stifles out a small laugh.

"everything's pretty much last minute, but don't worry, we always get the job done." the purple haired male huffs out, waving a hand nonchalantly. 

the silver haired male could only bite his lip in worry, gnawing it until blood could practically draw out, and for some reason he felt queasy, this unknown feeling eating his gut alive that he wouldn't be safe, even if the three sworn to protect him. the 'what if's' scenarios replayed over and over in his mind and he could only imagine the worst. what if someone got injured? what if the men in suits had spotted his mark even hidden underneath the night sky and concealer, what if his sister and mother were never really alive? though one of the 'what if' scenarios rung in his head quite loudly and clearly that scared him to the brink of death.

what if he wouldn't be able to see the three ever again? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late update!! still choking writers block by the neck and im having a little bit of trouble but *raises fork in defense* i did say in the last chapter that this chapter was supposed to be more angsty and action-y(?) and oriGINALLY this chapter was supposed to be so, but as i was typing this i knew that literally i could not fit 10k words in one chapter so i'm deciding to split the original 10k so long word chapter into 2 parts, this one being the first one for all you who enjoy the fluff in order to prepare yourselves physically and mentally for the next one because,, i have a lot of things in stored c:
> 
> by the way, i'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible because i know i don't want to keep people waiting and hanging on for the angsty action, i'll try to overwork myself a bit more to get the chapter out at least by monday, hope you understand <3


	6. for he's the devil in disguise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> — ❝ life is a puzzle, a maze, an answer to a riddle you have to figure out by yourself.  
> and with what little luck you have left, with time ticking down to the last seconds, how long do you think you will last? ❞

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (PT 2): WARNING!!: a much more longer chapter, the long awaited angsty actiony chapter i present to you, take care of yourselves! this involves graphic description of violence <3

> they were all back at merque.

it was now 10:30 pm, right on time when their so called 'plan' was about to either work or fall apart, but with the way the three had gave hosuh reassuring smiles, he had felt slightly calmer. they had grabbed something quick to eat before heading to merque, sitting on a booth near the back in a diner hosuh has never heard before, stephen occassionaly made him forget about the stress-worrying thoughts by shoving two fries in his mouth and acting as if he were a vampire with sharp fangs. 

the plan was quite simple, with only two goals in mind. one was to at least get a hold of one of the men in suits, granted, if he wasn't beat up at the brink of unconsciousness and could still function his mouth properly to talk and give them the information they needed, and two, to keep hosuh safe.

before they had stepped out of the car to head on towards the inside of the club, daniel stopped them briefly by handing them a bunch of weirdly shaped objects. "it's a bluetooth earpiece, it's all connected to each other to me, and from above, i can easily hear, and know what all three of you are saying or doing, so remember that before you start openly flirting with each other or anything." 

face flushing pink, hosuh fumbles a few times, unsure of how to properly attach the earpiece to his ear, but thankfully with the help of stephen, who obviously noticed his miserable failed attempts, he managed. the soft brush of the purple haired male's fingertips against the shell of his ear makes him slightly shiver, which went unnoticed as dark violet orbs bored into his owns, he felt at least a tad bit safer.

with that, the lime green strands that flowed in the dark night, disappeared, leaving hosuh, stephen, and jay alone, in the club.

everything was supposedly normal, the heavy dubstep music blaring in his ears every now and then, bright annoying neon lights flashing onto his eyes, and the welcoming and reassuring hug from the owner of the club, ginger hair in a manbun brushing against his forehead as he laughs into the hug, patting the older man by the back, nodding and countlessly repeating that he was fine, after what had happened the other night, though he wasn't a hundred percent sure he guaranteed his own safety, especially because of the events that were bound ot happen this night.

"how much you wanna bet on how many people will show up tonight?" stephen asks.

"i'd hope it would be zero." hosuh says playfully, rolling his eyes, trying to somewhat hide the nervous wreck in his brain that was drowning him in his thoughts.

"five dollars, i'd say at least ten." jay says, fishing out exactly five green bills from the pocket of his coat and waving them around.

"deal, i bet on six." stephen counters, digging out crumpled rolled five dollar bills as well. 

"ten? that's quite a lot.." hosuh mumbles. 

"it's alright, the most we've had chasing our tail was at least thirteen, the infamous unlucky number." the blonde shrugs. "and speaking of the devil, here they come." 

the sentence makes blood freeze in hosuh's veins as his eyes dreadfully wandered over to at least six men, dressed in the same familiar black suits, emerging out from the darkness and through the busy crowds, making their way towards him. immediately he felt cold sweat droplets forming on his forehead, his hands instinctively coming to clutch his wrist, and bright blue eyes darting towards jay and stephen, who gives him a silent nod. 

he sucks in a deep quick breath, allowing himself to calm down a bit, eyes watching carefully as two of the men in suits stepped forward, one, hosuh noticed, was taller than the other male, dark brown hair with blonde streaks at the tip. the other shorter male, didn't seem the least of threatening as his dark eyes glimmered in amusement once it locked eyes with his. 

"hello sirs, welcome to merque, could i get you anything to drink?" he says, managing to surpress the slight wobble in his tone as the two began taking seats directly in front of him, and in the corner of his eye, he spots the other four men in suits just lingering around in dark corners of the club. 

"maybe later." the male with blonde streaks says. "we're here to interrogate something, that is, if you don't mind." 

"no, not at all, feel free to ask questions. i'll do the best of my abilities to answer them as truthfully as possible." hosuh says, visibly lying through his gritted teeth. 

"were you aware of the events occuring last night, that four of our own men were found dead right outside the alleyway of your club?" 

"i'm sorry to hear that, but no i have not. i wasn't feeling well last night so i was excused to leave earlier, around midnight." which was totally a lie that hosuh prays to the lord that it was smooth enough, occassionally stealing glimpses from stephen and jay who were sitting to the left, across the black marble counter from him. 

"you wouldn't mind if we have a peek at one of your security camera footages? we're trying to capture the criminal, if you'd understand." the dark haired man finally speaks up and it makes hosuh's blood run cold as his mouth is unable to form proper sentences, body suddenly turning frigid, and it makes the two men sitting in front of him glance at each other briefly before the taller male speaks up. "unless you're hiding something from us?" 

"no, not at all." he quickly says. god, this plan was going to completely flip over. "if you want to view the footages, please head to the opposite side of the club, near the bar, the owner of the club who has ginger hair tied in a manbun will assist you." 

that seemed to be convincing enough, for the taller male with blonde streaks started standing up and heading towards the opposite side of the bar, yet his 'friend', the dark haired male remained seated calmly, black pitch eyes staring so focusedly at the black marble counter and hosuh was positive his eyes could probably burn a hole through it. 

"anything you'd like to drink?" he smoothly says, turning away from the man in the suit and walking towards jay and stephen, lowering his head down, making strands of silver fall over his face as he gives a hushed whisper to the both of them. "what if they find out?" 

"don't worry, daniel has already taken care of it." jay says, tone lowering as well. "keep up the act, see if we can dig any more information about those men, if not, we might have to get physical." 

**"excuse me, is it alright if i order a drink?"** a heavy voice makes hosuh's head jerk back towards the dark haired male whose chin is resting on his open palm, eyes directly staring into his. 

"sure, what would you like?" he asks, carefully approaching the man, uncomfortably shifting as he feels the tense gaze trained on his frame. 

the man in the suit thinks for a while, tapping a finger against his chin in a thinking manner as seconds go by in silence. "warm water." he concludes and hosuh finds himself raising an eyebrow at the request though nonetheless he obeys, moving towards the back of the bar, where they had stored warm water in small bottles, in case he had ever felt too dizzy or nauseous from working too much at the club. 

he returns shortly after, cold tense hands seeming to warm up upon curling themselves around the warm bottle, though he stops in his tracks as his eyes flickered up, meeting bright bubblegum blue ones. he doesn't know why his foot had suddenly come to a halt, why his eyes found itself widening, but as his eyes slowly traced down the features of the girl with blue eyes, he realises the dreading truth as the girl's dim dark brown hair glowed when neon lights flashed onto it. 

"hosuh..?" the girl quietly whispers, a hand coming up to her mouth in disbelief and he suddenly feels like he was 17 again. 

his throat was closing up, heart rapidly speeding up, head swirling with a billion thoughts he couldn't comprehend, as his own missing lost sister from seven years, was standing right in front of him. and dangerously close beside the man in the suit. 

"i assume your name is hosuh?" the man says, a small mischevious smile tugging at the corner of his lips and hosuh's baby blue eyes flashed in fear towards the man's dark ones. 

"i— yes." he quietly whispers, his own mouth betraying him as he feels his hands beginning to uncontrollably shake. he felt so exposed, his persona out wide in the open. hosuh lee, the innocent who has gone missing for 7 years, only living underneath the fake persona of gloss. he wants to scream, to cry, to run, as his true self begins to reveal itself, the innocent, scared, fragile boy who stood with trembling legs, like a deer caught in the headlights.

"by any chance, do you live by the name _hosuh lee_?" the man presses on, beginning to lean forward in his chair. 

the words 'no' repeatedly screamed in hosuh's head and he could only shake it, trying to clear his whirlpool of messy thoughts, taking in a deep breath as he tries to regain his composure. "my name is hosuh." he says, confirming the man's question. "but my last name isn't lee." 

"then if you don't mind me asking, what _is_ your last name?" 

fuck, anxiety begins to creep into his veins once again as his eyes desperately searched for an answer. "hosuh.." he mumbles his own name. "hosuh ko." he blurts out suddenly, face flushing in the dark as he realised what had just escaped through his lips and he prays to god jay hadn't heard what he said. he cautiously makes his way forward, trying to ignore the way his long lost sister stares at him with disbelief in her bright blue eyes, and towards the man in the suit, gently placing down the small bottle of warm water in front of him. 

"i see, then i guess my friend over here must've mistakened you for someone else. you see, she has a brother, with the same name as you, though his last name goes by lee. why don't you introduce yourself to the bartender with the same name as your brother?" the man says, head swiveling towards the girl. 

"i'm annabelle." the girl quietly whispers, blue eyes never leaving hosuh's. "but you can call me ann. you oddly resemble my brother, hosuh ko." 

"i wish you luck on finding your brother." hosuh says, eyes glimmering in happiness as they bored into ann's own. "i hope he'll come back to you soon." and he doesn't miss the way the girl's blue eyes softened at his statement. "i hope so too." she says, exchanging small whispers with him and he couldn't help the corner of his lips tugging into a smile. 

"it's quite dark outside for a young lady to be out this late at night," the man interrupts their short sweet moment, coughing into his hand. "take her home." he says, dark eyes flickering over towards two men who began approaching them one, who hosuh realises was the same male sat in front of him earlier, the male with dark brown hair with blonde streaks, gently lifting the girl on her feet, whose once soft blue eyes hardened into an icy cold glare, shaking off their hands that were gripping her shoulders, though her little strength proved to be harder to do so as she was roughly pushed and shoved away from hosuh.

in a fury of despairness, he let his own body control himself more than his thoughts, as abruptly, he reached out a hand that was far too late, as his sister slowly disappeared from his fingertips, yet again, her long brown hair gently swishing side to side before disappearing into the crowd, the last of her bright bubblegum blue eyes gazing into his in an expression he knew and felt too well: fear. 

a rough hand came to stop him, large fingertips curled around his fragile wrist, in which he glances at, gaze hardening at the man who seemed unaffected. 

"please let go." hosuh says, trying to stay calm though the low tone gritted through his teeth implied something else.

"my apologies, where did my manners go— oh dear what a mess." his sentence cuts off with an exclaim and suddenly one of the man's hands knocked the open waterbottle of warm water, the liquid spilling over their hands and hosuh fights the urge to tase this man to death, feeling the once soft cotton sweater slowly dampen with warmth. 

"i'm sorry." the man apologizes, though it seemed like he was't the least of expressing some half-heartedly manners, as he let go of hosuh's wrist. "it's quite alright." he replies smoothly, quickly drying his hands with his own sweater, not missing the way the man's eyes followed his hands movements. 

"though now that you've interrogated me quite a lot this night, will you allow me to do the same to you?" he quickly says, leaning against one of the ledges of the bar in the back, arms shielded behind his body. 

"go ahead." 

this was his chance. to ask so many questions left unanswered by himself late at night. so many questions yet he didn't know what to begin with. though a sudden voice piercing through his ears seemed to do for the job for him as daniel's familiar low voice broke through his thoughts, a crackling sound blaring through the earpiece that glowed bright blue underneath his silver hair. "ask him what's his occupation." right, a question small and simple that would be easy enough to detect if the man was lying with crossed fingers behind his back or was telling the dreading truth he knew the answer to. 

"what do you work as?" hosuh asks, eyes narrowing in suspicion, making sure to pay attention to every word, every syllable leaving the man's mouth who began to open.

"it's quite complicated to answer really, but you could say i work for an organisation under the government, sorta like a scientist." the man says with ease, taking a swig of the warm water that was once spilled across the counter.

"what type of organisation?" hosuh presses on, nervously picking at the skin near his nails.

"have you ever heard of the _innocents,_ hosuh lee?" the dark haired male breathes softly, and immediately the silver haired boy recoiled at the way his name had rolled so dangerously off of the man's tongue.

"i have." 

"then you must've known about men in suits coming after them, have you not?" 

"i've heard. though i don't suppose you have a humane reason for capturing and tearing people away from their beloveds or home?" hosuh grits out, and daniel must've noticed his aggravated tone for he quietly murmurs in his ear a quiet 'calm down' and he remembers to take in a deep breath to cool himself down. 

"we have a perfectly reasonable answer, whether it'd be considered wrong in many eyes, we just do what the government tells us to do, you can't really blame us for that." 

"ask what he does with the innocents." daniel says, and hosuh repeats daniel's question for him.

"it's top secret information darling, i can't tell you that or else i'll be sent to somewhere unpleasant, like you." the man mutters at the last part, but went unheard by hosuh as he raises an eyebrow questioningly. "what do you mean, sent to somewhere unpleasant like me?" 

the man let out a dark chuckle, sending chills down hosuh's spine as he watched the man slowly stand up, craning his neck, small sounds of joints cracking, and hosuh feels himself backing away, back leaning far against the counter, blue eyes widening in fear. 

"you really think i wouldn't know? _hosuh lee_." the man purrs out and hosuh visibly freezes, the loud blaring of music in the background drowning out as eerie silence rung throughout his head, his pupils shrinking in pure fear as watching the man's smirk grow wider. 

"i'm not—" 

"ah-ah, no need to lie my dear, an innocent should never lie, should he?" the man breaks off his sentence, leaning in towards the black marble counter, the only thing that was separating his fists from hosuh. 

" **and a man should respect one's privacy, should he not?** " a familiar voice breaks through and in this moment of despair, hosuh couldn't find himself able to turn his head around to see the face of the voice, though he knew too well who it belonged to as a familiar blonde appears from the corner of his eyes. 

the man turns away from him, thankfully, though raised an eyebrow at the sudden unexpected guest joining their conversation. "and who might you be?" 

"his friend." jay says calmly, cocking a head to the side as he bravely stuffed his hands in his pockets, though little did anyone knew what dangerous weapons were held and hidden underneath.

"then i suggest you step back in case you might get hurt. we're doing business here, if you don't mind." 

"this is also my business, if you don't mind." jay quickly interrupts the male, slanted smile tugging on the corner of his lips upon catching a glimpse of the way the man's dark eyes narrowed. "i know what you're up to." he adds in a hushed tone, slowly pulling out a small gun, examining it's sharp shiny features that glinted in the dark, whenever neon lights flashed on it. "i'm giving you to the count of three, you either keep your hands off of him, or i'll blow your head open." he finishes, a slight snarl to the end of his words. 

"right in front of all these people to see?" the man huffs out a laugh, arms spreading around him, gesturing towards the unbeknowst crowds dancing in the dark, yet to notice this commotion stirring up. 

"whose to say there'll be people watching?" jay says, hand tightly gripping the trigger of the gun, taking aim and pointing it straight towards the man's chest. before the man could even utter out a word in response, he tilted his head, sunset-red eyes glinting mischieviously in the dark. "time's up." he whispers, quickly swiveling the gun away from the man's chest, upwards towards the ceiling and pulling the trigger.

a loud bang was heard that made hosuh flinch at the sound, and silence struck after the storm of chaos, people letting out fearful screams and shrieks as they blindly headed towards the exit, the once loud heavy dubstep music drumming against the floor disappeared, along with the crowd that shortly left. "get him!" the man yells out, a clear sign of battle beginning, knowing blood will be shed tonight. 

immediately, the four men that had disappeared in the dark earlier came in a single flash, their dark eyes focusing on their target, hosuh, whose baby blue eyes could only tremble, his feet as if stuck and glued onto the floor, unable to move. though with the swift motion of silver metal glistening for a brief moment, as stephen quickly stood up, legs slightly spread open, he prepared to defend for the two of them. 

using the same tactics as last night, he quickly dug out his choice of weapons for tonight, a handful of switchblades in which he held tightly by the handles, abruptly jumping on the black marble counter and standing in front of hosuh, eyes narrowing as the men in suits approached him quickly. and with taking precise aim, he threw two of them with a large amount of force, one with his luck, hitting one of the men in suits right in the eye, said man falling to the ground in pain as he yelled out a scream of pain, blood spurting out and pooling onto the ground.

though fate had other things in planned, as his luck soon quickly ran out, feeling a harsh tight grip around his left leg, stephen looked down to see one of the men roughly pulling him down by the leg, his head knocking against the hard edges of the black marble counter and he was positive he drew blood, as he groaned in pain, a hand coming to gently touch against the spot on his head that had collided with the counter, growling out a string of colorful curse words from his mouth once his eyes saw red on his hand.

swiftly grabbing one of the fallen switchblades on the ground, he charged forward towards the man who collectively stood up at the same time stephen began nearing him. unbeknowst to the purple haired male, the man in the suit let out a small smirk, quickly pulling out a revolver, eyes narrowing as he begins to take aim, though stephen ignores it, charging head-first and as the bullet had fired forward, he quickly swerved towards the right, swinging the blade towards the man, though it had just missed, as it swung a few feet above his head. 

"missed." the man says, having the nerve to cock his head to the side smugly as he begins to take aim again though stephen could only huff out a laugh, raising an eyebrow. "did i?" he grins, and it makes confusion flicker in the man's dark eyes for a brief moment. 

a quick jab up in the air with stephen's thumb and index finger makes the man only even more confused. "look up." he whispers, giving him a quick wink, violet eyes darkening in satisfaction as he watches the man follow his orders fairly easily, looking up and stephen cherishes the pure fear engulfing the man's eyes as one of the bright neon lights that once flashed annoyingly onto his face, fell down and plummeted towards the ground, crushing the man beneath it all. 

"bull's eye." he whispers, appeased as he dramatically purses his lips and huffs out a small blow right above his thumb and index fingers, as if he were blowing wisps of smoke from a fired gun.

meanwhile, with jay dealing with the dark haired man's antics, dodging swiftly left and right with agile, occassionaly taking a few blows, though left unrevenged as he quickly took payback, delivering harsh punches to the man's abdomen, who doubled over in pain, a small string of blood escaping out of the man's lips. stephen was no less available either, as he was quickly knocked off his feet by the same man who clutched his bleeding eye in pain earlier, blade still intact with the pierced eyeball, blood pouring out and leaving a trail of red tears. 

which left hosuh alone, defenseless and alone in fear as two men began nearing him, cornering him as they approached and a sharp voice pierces through his eardrums which makes him snap in realisation, as daniel through the earpiece quickly yells at him to pull the trigger of the taser, the weapon jay had handed him in case this very situation managed to happen. he dug through his pocket, raising the taser high in the air and in a second, the trigger was pulled by his very own fingers wrapped tightly around him, bright blue electode lights illuminated from the stun gun, instantly tasing the man in front of him, his hair spiking out in hectic directions and eyes widening as his body spazzed uncontrollably before falling to the ground in a heap, chest no longer heaving up and down, with black smoke flaring up around his body. 

with blue eyes growing in amazement, his hands begun to shake as he realised the once innocent pure hands of his was now tainted with death and blood. though he hadn't noticed one of the men in suits slowly creeping up on him, and the moment he realised, it was too late, as he felt large hands wrapping around his body, trapping him in the corner, the taser falling out of his hands and hosuh wonders how unlucky he could ever get in his life, quickly using his second self defense skills he learned from the internet, roughly digging his elbow against the male's stomach who quickly let him go, grunting in pain.

still wanting to get revenge, his hands burned with grief and rage as he quickly kicked the man's crotch area, who instantly fell to the floor, clutching his kicked regions in pain, using what energy he had left to shoot hosuh a burning glare, as he quickly grabbed the sole of his foot in an attempt to stop the innocent from escaping. 

said male's bright blue eyes lowered into a dim icy glare as he used his other foot to harshly stomp against the man's hand wrapped around his ankle, the sole of his foot grinding against the man's knuckles in enduring and lasting pain, those seven years of hiding and running away from these men, seven years of crying and grieving and rage poured out as he repeatedly raised his foot and rammed it against the man's hands, a satisfying loud crack ringing through the air. 

"don't ever touch what's not yours." he finishes with a hiss, quickly grabbing one of the many neatly stacked wine bottles on top of the shelves, and smashing it against the man's head, shards of glass flying by him, the wine's content spilling out and dribbling against the man's face, mixed with blood and dirt, he was finally knocked out, unconscious.

adrenaline was pumping wild in hosuh's veins, the only sound of his heart thumping harshly against his ribcage was drumming in his ears, as he looked down at his hands tainted with what seemed like wine and blood mixed together, his once neat soft pink sweater bloodied and dirtied. 

several yells and grunts of pain snapped him back to reality as his eyes flashed towards jay who was pinned down by the man in the suit, gun dangerously hovering right against the blonde's forehead and hosuh's eyes widened in realisation, hand quickly drawing for one of the small switchblades covered in red on the black marble counter, slowly yet carefully, approaching behind the man in silent footsteps. 

"not so tough are ya now?" the man huffs, dark eyes boring into jay's sunset red ones, who flickered over towards hosuh slowly approaching them. the man must've noticed the movement of his eyes, for he quickly turned around, eyes widening as he sees the silver haired bartender raising the blade high in the air, metal glinting in the air before roughly plunging it down, only for it to be stopped by the harsh grip of the man's fingers around hosuh's wrist.

eyes widening as he realised how much his plan had backfired, he stared at the man's now bleeding hand, several cuts opening as the sharp blade drew blood. "you missed." the man whispers, tone dangerously low.

bangs of silver fell over his face as he tilted his head to the side, blue eyes glinting in mischief. "i just prevented you from moving two steps to the right." hosuh says, smirk tugging on his lips as he notices the way the man's expression falters, dark eyes swimming in confusion before quickly widening in realisation, but it was too late, as he quickly swiveled around, to see the blonde already rising to his feet, gun in his hand and fingers wrapped around the trigger. 

"surprise, motherfucker." jay mutters red and yellow eyes gleaming right back at him, opening fire and shooting a bullet right through the man's shoes, he who tumbled to the floor in pain, clutching his feet that began pooling out blood around him. 

stephen, who was still busy wrestling the man with the blade in his eye, was pinned against one of the walls, his messy violet hair swept across his forehead as he panted breaths of exhaustion, finding it harder to breathe as the man's hands had tightened his grip around stephen's throat. "tired already?" the man chuckles. 

"you've underestimated how much surprises i have left underneath my sleeves." stephen says, violet eyes lighting back up to life as he roughly grips the handle of the switchblade embedded inside the man's pierced eye, roughly twisting it in torturous slow movements that made the man yell out in pain, tears of blood running down his face as he let go of stephen's neck. 

"call backup." a small voice grunts out and stephen's eyes hardened at the sight of the dark haired male crumpled to the ground in pain, a small walkie talkie lying on the ground beside him. 

"pathetic space of waste, you still insist on calling for help?" stephen spits, stepping forward towards the man whose dark eyes narrowed at him. "we'll see whose talking once i get my hands on that innocent." the man chokes out a laugh and it makes stephen's blood boil in rage, ramming his foot against the walkie-talkie with full force, smashing it to broken pieces that was too far gone to repair, bits of its black blunt unknown objects flinging dangerously close to the man's face. 

"all of you, get out. right now." daniel's voice breaks through stephen's outburst, loud voice crackling through the earpiece. 

"what? i thought we were planning on catching one of them?" stephen says, fumbling with the earpiece, as it was loosely hanging off the shell of his ear.

"forget about the mission, black mercedes is heading towards the club and i don't know how many people are inside. i can buy you some time, but you need to get out. now." daniel adds, voice hissing with venom and stephen hesitates. they had already gotten enough blood on their hands, why stop now? 

"stephen, **now.** " jay says in a hard tone, a few feet away from him and he looks up, teeth gritted in frustration as he casts a final glare at the man on the floor. 

quickly, they headed out the same way, through the back door exit of the club, into the familiar dark alleyway, the pleasant cool wind ruffling their hair in welcome, and the faint twinkling of lights far ahead from buildings were teasing them, as the three of them ran faster, the taste of escape and freedom easily felt on the tip of their tongues.

though bittersweet waves crashed down as a loud screeching noise pierced through the silent night air, a new competitor rising to the challenge as a black mercedes benz rolled in, bright lights flashing directly into their eyes, engine humming loudly. a dark figure was easily seen in the drivers seat, though undistinguishable in the dark, as the car let out a loud whirring noise. 

"daniel i'm giving you one job." jay rasps from beside stephen, his hand tightly gripping around hosuh's wrist securely. 

at the same time, a loud banging noise was heard behind them and hosuh whirled around wildly, locks of silver dancing in the night air as he sees the three men standing by the door, dark eyes staring right into his, one, the dark haired man who seemed to grin wickedly at him, sending goosebumps down on his skin, and two other men in suits beside him, one, he recognizes, the same man who he smashed the wine bottle on, his messy hair wet and dripping, glass shards sticking out, his once formal neat suit now drenched and wrinkled, ruined. the third, had a blade implanted into his eye, strings of red pooling out of his eyes and hosuh visibly cringes at the sight. 

"ah for fucks sake." jay gasps from beside him, barely catching his breath.

"i'll take care behind your back, go." daniel says and hosuh raises an eyebrow at jay and stephen who spares him a quick glance as well. "but the car—?" he asks, eyes flickering back to the mercedes that was blocking their way.

"trust us." stephen says, giving him a sly wink, before gently intertwining his hands with his. "when i count down to one, run with me, okay? don't let go of my hand." 

before he could even protest stephen begins counting down, fingers gently gripping around his. "three." 

"two." hosuh mumbles, eyes staring forward right in front of him, squinting slightly as the bright lights from the car burned holes through his retinas. 

"one!" jay yells out, and suddenly hosuh feels himself being roughly tugged forward, feet kicking up in the dust as he begins running with stephen, fingers never slipping off of his, and his eyes widened as they neared closer and closer towards the car that also began driving towards them. 

"stephen!" he shouts, but said male ignored him, only tugging his wrist forward and closer towards the car. "jump!" the purple haired male finally says and without questioning, he falls in the trust of his words, jumping high in the air. 

it was a miracle, as his feet felt itself roughly colliding against the roof of the car, the weight of the both of them and jay included who followed shortly after them, pushed the car down slightly, before they springed forward, right on top of the car before jumping down from the trunk and hosuh lets out an unbelieving laugh. 

before the car could reverse and turn around, jay quickly pulls out his gun from earlier, briefly closing one of his eyes and taking aim, fingers pulling on the trigger as the bullet whizzes in the air, and hitting straight into one of the back tires of the car, a loud whistling noise followed soon after as the tire began to lose air, before completely flattening. 

above them, gunshots could be heard as hosuh glances upward, a familiar lime green haired that stands on top of the roofs of one of the buildings, holding indeed, a sniper rifle, aiming right towards the three men in suits who were beginning to charge at them. 

"c'mon!" stephen hisses from beside him, quickly tugging on his wrist again, though a sharp grunt escaped the purple haired male as he stumbled forward and hosuh's blue eyes widened as he stared down at stephen's legs, a bright neon pink dart sticking out that was implanted deeply that pierced through fabric and into skin. 

"fuck, i— my leg i can't— it's numb." stephen says, biting his lip in pain though he manages to drag his still right functioning leg, the left trailing behind him as he was limping forward yet slowly, with hosuh assisting him by wrapping the male's arms around his shoulder. 

though before he could take another step forward, another voice yelled into the air and he snapped his head to the right towards the sound of direction, pupils shrinking in fear as jay was knocked off of his feet, the blonde colliding his head against the ground as he was roughly pinned by one of the men in suits, the one that had a blade sticking out of his eye. 

before hosuh could even set stephen down in a safe place in order to help jay, he too, was suddenly roughly pushed to the ground, and his intertwined fingers with stephen soon slipped off from each other as he glances up, eyes boring right into familiar dark ones that stared down at him, fear creeping up his spine as he suddenly felt cornered, hungry dark eyes trailing his figure as if he were prey. 

"think you could escape?" the man says, strands of dark black hair falling over his eyes and in the corner of hosuh's eyes, a sharp bright pink dart glinted in the air at him, as the man prepared to plunge it down into his neck, paralyzing him, he prepared for the impact, squeezing his eyes shut.

though the attack never came, and feeling confused, he slowly re-opened his blue eyes, a small gasp escaping his lips as in front of his hands, lit a bright blue glow, almost as if forming a protective bubble shield around him and against the man's dart that was stuck in between the barrier of blue. 

confusion flickered in the man's dark eyes for a moment before his grin grew wider, more sinister as his eyes darkened. the world fell silent around hosuh, as time began to felt as if it was slowing down, the only sound of faint gunshots ringing in the air and his heart banging against his ribcage. 

before the man in front of him could make another move towards him, his shoulder roughly snapped back, as droplets of blood began spraying out from underneath the suit. he let out a loud snarl, glaring up at the attack that fell from the night sky, right into the fiery lime green eyes that stared right into his. 

the blue hue that glowed behind hosuh's palm had slowly died down, only a faint dim was seen as the barrier was slowly lifted and he curses underneath his breath, quickly picking himself off from the ground, eyes wildly darting towards stephen who was leaned against the brick wall, chest heaving up and down slowly, the pink neon dart lying on the ground a few inches beside him, assumingly being roughly yanked out of his leg by the purple haired male. 

a body was also beside stephen, a few feet away from where he sat, blood beginning to pool out of his body as a shiny bullet was spotted inside the man's back, piercing through the suit, in the corner of hosuh's eyes as he made his way towards stephen, his violet tired eyes softening once meeting his.

swiftly, he kneeled down to stephen's height and began picking the male up, gathering his arms to hook around his own neck and in this moment of time, hosuh takes the time to dangerously snatch a glimpse beside him, the dark haired man dodging multiple bullets that were fired at him from the night sky. jay, who had just finished beating up the other man, leaving him a heaping mess on the ground, made his way towards them, droplets of blood splattered against his once neat beige coat, some of it getting onto his blonde hair.

"here." jay huffs out, helping hosuh carry stephen as the purple haired male lets out a panied grunt, stumbling forward a few times as the blonde offers his shoulder around stephen's arm, and with hosuh beside him, they quickly rounded the corner, stepping away from the dark alleyway that was filled with the reeking stench of blood, piles of bodies and a run down car left, with faint gunshots whizzing through the night air. 

another new sound rung through the air that made hosuh's head whirl around, eyes narrowing at the familiar whirring sound of a car engine that was heard as bright lights shone from the dark alleyway, the car somehow managing to quickly swerve away from the direction of the three, and onto the road, into the night, it's bright red rear lights flashing back at them, yet with no registration plate to take note of.

letting out a deep breath hosuh didn't know he held in for so long, his eyes worriedly flickered over towards stephen, who leaned against his shoulder with slight struggle, his right leg dragging behind him, in an awkward and very uncomfortable position. "are you hurt anywhere?" he asks with concern, his blue gaze switching back and forth to stephen and jay who exchanged him with small reassuring smiles.

"aside from my leg, i don't think so." stephen huffs out a laugh, using his hand that was engraved with small cuts buried into his skin, to comb messy strands of violet out of his eyes. "okay yeah, that might be a lie." the male winces, using a hand to cup his cheek that was beginning to form a light purple bruise.

"are you, though?" jay asks him.

hosuh could only nod, no words forming out of his lips as adrenaline was pumping through his veins, heart still not calming down from the events that had just occured. perhaps he was alright physically, but mentally? a hurricane of thoughts were swirling in his mind right now, staring down at his own hands that began to slowly shake, the aftereffects of realisation hiting him as vivid memories of glass shards flew by his head, wine and even blood splattering, and the blue sheild he managed to create out of thin air in the split second of pure panic. 

soft warm hands wrapped around his shaky ones and hosuh looks up to face jay, noticing how his face began to crust from dry blood that he had hoped didn't belong to the blonde. 

a loud beeping noise made him jump as he turned around to see the familiar black van rolling in, the car doors automatically sliding open and hosuh and jay helped stephen get in the car first, the purple haired male occassionaly letting out grunts as he finally managed to settle in a comfortable spot, followed by hosuh who scooted closer towards stephen, and finally jay, who slid the door shut behind them. 

daniel, who was sitting in the drivers seat, gave all three of them brief glances through the rear view mirror, before letting out a loud sigh. "thank god you dumbasses aren't hurt that severely." 

"yeah, thank god for that. but i'm pretty sure i didn't miss shooting the tire flat back then." jay pipes up, raising an eyebrow at the recalled moment.

"the dark haired man kept me occupied, throwing darts at me, couldn't get a good shot at the other guy who quickly switched the flat tire with a brand new one. they drove off before i could get another aim at them." daniel says, beginning to step on the car pedal, locking the car doors with a quick jab to one of the buttons, a loud click resonated shortly after.

jay lets out a sharp sigh, roughly yanking one of the wet wipes out from the packet near daniel, wiping his face with it, along with harshly rubbing spots of red on his coat, muttering a few curse words. "guess this is the first time we managed to let our job go unfinished." 

hosuh who had been quietly listening to the conversation kept quiet, gnawing the inside of his lip in worry. so many things had happened today, he wasn't sure if he could take it in all at once. sure, he managed to get out alive, along with the three males who accompanied him, but their goal seemed harder to reach, as if oppurtunities kept teasing them, allowing them to briefly grasp it before slipping between their fingertips with ease. 

"stephen, i don't think now is a good time to be scrolling through your phone." daniel says, eyes hardening at the purple haired male who was busy looking down at his bright phone screen that illuminated in the dark.

"relax, who said we three would ever leave our jobs unfinished?" stephen finally speaks up, raising his head to reveal a small slanted smile tugging on the corner of his lips. 

"what do you mean?" jay asks, boredly staring out the window of the car, a palm coming up to rest upon his chin.

"ten out of ten disappointed." stephen huffs, extending a palm out to show his phone and out of curiousity, hosuh leans in to observe more, strands of silver falling from being tucked behind his ear, eyes focusedly following the tiny red dot enlarging and shrinking every few seconds, and if you could squint hard enough, you would notice the dot beginning to move along the grid of some sort of map. 

"holy shit, stephen." daniel breathes out in awe, briefly stopping the car to turn his head around as well. "how? you fucking genius." 

"bold of you to underestimate the legendary stephen ng," the purple haired male shrugs, waving his free hand nonchalantly as if it wasn't a big thing. "took the oppurtunity when jumping over the car to quickly stick the gps tracking transmitter just below the trunk of it. if you're going to hand me these weird tech objects, why not put them to good use?" he adds.

daniel seemed to be deep in thought, for the green haired male was too busy rubbing the back of his hand against his chin. "guess this makes our job easier.." he mutters and behind him, stephen snorts, though he ignores it. "and yet harder at the same time. we're gonna have to be the ones chasing after them, instead of the other way around." 

"well, we have the iconic lim, ko, ng, and a new party member joining the sin, what could possibly go wrong?" stephen says, locks of purple falling over his dark violet night eyes as they flickered over towards hosuh, lips thinning into a small smile. "welcome to the elite, _hosuh lee_." 

upon hearing his name in a more calmer tone, hosuh managed to smile at stephen, blue eyes softening as he hears stephen continuing his bragging rights, reminding jay that he owed him five dollars from the bet earlier, and beside him, the blonde who waved a hand and muttered a 'yeah yeah'. 

this unknown giddy feeling that felt like butterflies, fluttered in his stomach, a smile never leaving his lips as he continues to stare in front of him. underneath this dark night as he was accompanied by the three males who he had shed blood and sweat with, perhaps fate had something in mind, purposely tying their strings together and making their paths stumble upon one another, for a good reason he has yet to find out.

perhaps, luck was on their side after all. 

**｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈•ﾟ｡**

"sir, are you sure you don't want to call for more backup? i thought our mission was to bring the innocent to the harvesting organisation?" a small meek voice breaks through the silence of the car, occassionaly giving side glances towards the rear view mirror, and looking quickly away as eyes pitch dark as the night sky flickered over to him.

"why would i need to waste my energy on chasing them? we have what they want, we'll just sit back and relax, it won't be long before the boy will be in our hands soon, for we have their prized possesion, right here, in the palm of our hands." the dark haired man says, rough hands coming to harshly grip the small delicate chin of a young girl sitting beside him.

a muffled sound of despair mixed with rage whimpered out from the cloth that was tied around the girl's mouth, her icy blue eyes glaring hard into the man's dark ones, only a chuckle escaping out of his lips at her pathetic weak state, as her hands were tied behind her back, left defenseless.

"what a fun tale to be told, to bad that it'll come to an end soon. i guess i'll have to keep continuing to play bad cop." the man sighs, running a hand through his hair to soothe it down. "granted, if all my bullets have already fired, we'll soon get to see whose the last one standing." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hosuh: *literally tases someone to death*  
> jayphen: that's our future boyfie uwu
> 
> ((also see what i did there with the hosuh ko thing mwahaha))   
> anywayS MERY CHRISTMAS! aaAaA ACTIONY ANGST- i hope that has lived up to your expectations cause i'm still trying out different dynamics with my writing!! a lot of things to take in,, i hope you managed out alive? you're allowed to continuously spam capitalized letter a's in the chat, i will gladly frame and hang them up on my wall lol 
> 
> bUT YES TO CONFIRM THINGS: yes, annabelle has finally met hosuh for a brief moment (@ indirect to user sippingonajuicebox to their comment in the last chapter: literally foiled my plans for this chapter my goodness how could u you genius mastermind,, and i thought i was being slick with the hosuh name reveal thing- jkjk i love you!! ;0;)  
> and yes, hosuh has this,, some sort of power in his hands 👀 (im assuming with this chapter alone you can easily guess what power hosuh has and why the men in suits are after him and capturing 'innocents' hoho)  
> and yes, hosuh literally killed someone in this chapter i bet you weren't prepared for that,  
> and *inhales* yeS FINALLY HOSUH'S NAME IS REVEALED AAAA, you may now rest in peace and pieces for stephen has finally said the words "hosuh lee" i shall see you all 12 feet underground ♥(ˆ⌣ˆԅ)  
> 


	7. lovely luminescence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> — ❝ underneath this great indigo engulfing the sky,  
> looking up upon twinkling stars, as moonlight shines down, you'll find butterflies  
> fluttering around your stomach, filled with love as it brings you up to rest upon the moon. ❞

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fluff n maybe angst (??), a more easy-going chapter cause last chapter i literally had no mercy on y'all lol (i'll try with the angst, granted if i don't start crying in the middle of it—) ALSO I SWEAR I TRY TO KEEP THE CHAPTERS I WRITE ENTERTAINING AND NOT TOO LONG BUT I LOOK AWAY FOR ONE SECOND AND MY HANDS HAVE ALREADY TYPED 7K WORDS WHAT IS THIS WITCHCRAFT WHY CAN'T I DO THE SAME WITH THIS BUT WITH MY SOCIOLOGY EXAM A FEW MONTHS AGO anyways enjoy! <3

> hosuh was exhausted. 

he wasn't used to running so much, despite having a secret identity he had kept hidden for seven years, having to run and walk quickly with his head turning around every two seconds along the sidewalks underneath the moonlight that shone on his silver hair, whenever he felt stares trained on his body. to be fair, he could say for himself that the word 'safe' barely felt like a word to him, but as he leaned against the car seat that hummed and vibrated along with the car engine, shoulders gently brushing against the two bodies of jay and stephen who sat beside him, maybe could experience what the word safe felt like.

the comforting silence and warm atmosphere around him made him feel drowsy, drunk off of sleep as he felt messy strands of silver brushing against his face, yet he was too tired to even bother tucking his hair back behind his ear again, knowing that it'll fall forward again in a few seconds. his eyelids felt heavy, no matter how hard he tried to keep them open, occassionaly pinching the skin on his hand to snap him back to reality, though the more he did this, the more he was numb to the reaction as his head fell forward a few times, before jerking back a couple seconds later. 

a sudden hand gently came to wrap around his head, pulling him to a warm body to rest against. he was about to protest, arms gently coming up to pry his head away from the warm body he so badly wanted to rest his head against, though another arm came to rest around his shoulder, bringing him even close and immediately he felt his eyelids flutter shut, warmth spreading around his body, buzzing to the tip of his fingertips. 

"you can sleep for now." jay's low voice mumbles in his ears and hosuh gratefully hums, nuzzling his face against the warm fuzzy fabric of the blonde's coat, (the part that wasn't covered in dried blood) softly inhaling his warm scent that smelled like bittersweet lemons and sunflowers, as if he was feeling the beams of sunlight shining down his face, considering that he felt so warm and safe. 

gentle hands came up to teasingly play with his messy silver locks, fingers twirling around handful of strands and hosuh lets out a pleased sigh, leaning in towards the touch as jay continued playing with his hair, and at this point, hosuh didn't want jay to stop whatever the hell he was doing to his hair, even if it meant he had to fix it back later, as long as the blonde didn't stop, he was content with the feeling of warm fingertips gently brushing against the shell of his ear, to the back of his neck.

slowly, but eventually, he felt himself beginning to succumb to the luring darkness, heartbeat gently slowing down from previous adrenaline pumping through his veins, as he listens to the soft heartbeat of jay thumping against his chest that his head had rest upon, his broad chest heaving up and down in even patterns. that night, he fell asleep in the arms of jay, the same way he woke up earlier, with the blonde's arms around his small frame. and truth be told, he wishes he could fall asleep like this everytime.

what seemed like hours to jay, as they were stuck in quite heavy traffic for a couple of minutes, he was too scared to move or even breathe loudly, too scared to wake up the fragile sleeping boy leaning against his chest. a similar feeling of a cat owner whose scared to even get up to go to the bathroom, in fear of waking their beloved cat up who rests sleeping peacefully on your lap while you're internally sweating in panic, yes, that was what jay was currently feeling as of now. 

occassionaly, he felt intense stares of stephen who sat inches away from him, dark violet eyes meeting his sunset red ones that gleamed in amusement, as he sticks his tongue out at stephen, a silent sign of 'suck it' as the purple haired male rolls his eyes, stubbornly turning away from him and focusing on the view of cars and their red lights blinking at him outside of the window. 

sometimes, he'd be so lost in the sight of the silver haired angel leaning against him, as his fingers automatically wound itself around his silver locks of hair, enjoying how it smoothly slithered away from his touch, softly falling against hosuh's face, in which he gently tucks the messy strand back behind the boy's ears. but who could blame him though? when you have a tiny pure angel practically almost sitting on your lap and mumbling incoherent words as their head snuggled deeper into your chest, this should be illegal but at the same time, jay is lowkey enjoying it. 

his mind wanders off to what had happened earlier back at the club, before chaos struck. he could clearly recall the vivid memory of hosuh's bright blue eyes widening in fear, staring straight ahead as jay follows his gaze, landing on a particularly small female with shoulder length long dark brown hair, with the same pair of soft baby blue eyes as the innocent, and it was pretty easy to connect the dots from that point on, as the girl mumbles out a 'hosuh', in which jay raises his eyebrow at, glancing at stephen who does the same, their eyes meeting in confusion.

he remembers repeating the silver haired boy's name a couple of times, as it felt unfamiliar with the way it easily rolled off his tongue, and the bright blue glow illuminating from hosuh's hands, reminiscing how the blue bubble acted as a protective shield against the men in suit's attacks. jay looks down at the boy whose long eyelashes decorated the rim of his closed eyes, small mouth slightly opening as he breathed in and out. maybe he really is special, huh? besides being an innocent, he was a pretty unique boy, surprisingly able to easily capture both him and stephen's attention only in a span of a few nights, yet he had already felt so attached to the silver haired boy.

a small smile tugged on his lips as he bit the inside of his mouth to stop himself from doing so as hosuh's words of "hosuh ko" from earlier repeated and echoed inside his mind. 

he was practically so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't realised that the car had now slowed down to a stop, and it was only until daniel's voice that broke through the lingering silence that made him look up, eyes blinking as he felt lost, not knowing that they had already reached the condo in minutes. glancing back down at hosuh who remained unbothered and still deep in sleep, he glanced towards stephen for help, though said male was already beginning to head out, dusting himself down as he jumped down from the car, awkwardly squatting and bending his legs, in order to test out if his leg was still numb, and thankfully it wasn't.

helpless, jay was left alone in the car with the sleeping boy yet unbeknowst to his surroundings. carefully, he began shifting gently, using his arms to gently grip hosuh's shoulders to lift his small frame away from his chest so he could finally breathe, though he barely had seconds to, as strands of silver fell forward and out of panic, jay quickly set his hand against hosuh's neck, lifting his neck up in fear of the boy slamming his head against the car seat. 

the car door beside him opened and jay's sunset red eyes flickered over towards the purple haired male who stood in front of him, hands tucked in the pockets of his jeans as he raises an eyebrow at the pair before letting out a low sigh. "hand him over to me." 

it makes jay hesitate as he was unsure of how to get out of the car without disturbing the sleeping boy, though a hand comes to wrap around his wrist, pulling him forward. "don't make me have to drag you out." stephen threatens, as jay spares him a quick glare, gently setting hosuh against the car seat, quickly giving him a final glance before stepping out of the car, stretching his limbs as he was finally able to move from such a long period of staying in the same position. 

his head swivels around to see stephen, (quite struggling) gently manhandling the sleeping boy in a position where the purple haired male was able to wrap his hands around hosuh's thighs with a gentle yet tight grip, lifting him up as the head of silver fell forward, snuggling against stephen's warm broad back as his hands automatically made their way to loosely hang around stephen's neck. from an outsiders point of view, they definitely look like a sweet romantic couple, jay notes, as he tries to keep a straight face though he can't help his eyes that softened fondly as he looks at the pair heading towards him. 

"stop staring at us like that, it's creepy." stephen mutters, voice low as he tries not to startle the sleeping boy on his back. 

"you know, if anybody saw you outside right now like this, they'd definitely think you two are a couple." jay lightheartedly says, beginning to walk towards the condo, stephen trailing slightly behind him as he carries the weight of hosuh behind. 

jay doesn't miss the way stephen splutters out in embarrassment, ears slightly tinting a lovely shade of red as he breifly turns his head around his shoulder and casting the purple haired male a sly wink, in which stephen glares at. 

"you're embarrassed?" jay rasps out in a husky voice, smirking as he notices stephen's face beginning to heat up into a blooming red. "is that why you don't like public affection? no wonder why you always reject me holding your hand." which receives a smack to the head by stephen as jay lets out a laugh, raising his hands in defense, calling a truce. 

"so, you gave him the concealer?" jay hums, switching to his normal demeanour, for the sake of stephen not blowing up considering how red hot his cheeks were. 

"yeah.. do you think it was a good idea?" stephen mumbles, eyes casting downwards as wisps of purple fall over.

"i don't know, that's for you to decide. but honestly, i'm proud of you." jay says, soft eyes meeting purple orbs as they sheepishly met, a dopey smile tugging on the corner of stephen's lips. "really?" the purple haired male whispers and jay nods in confirmation, ruffling his hair into a mess out of adoration, in which stephen yells out a profanity, going back to his usual self as he glares daggers at the blonde. 

eventually and thankfully for stephen's back, hosuh soon stirred awake, blue eyes coming to life as they blinked slowly, readjusting to the new surroundings, as they had now reached the front of the condo, and it was only until now that he was practically clinging around stephen's neck on his back like a koala. profusely, he apologized for being such a burden, making his way down to the ground once again, with stephen and jay shaking their heads continuously and repeating that it was fine, though it didn't help the blush dusting on his cheeks die down. 

they were all being casted with occasional concerned glances thrown at them, as daniel led the way for them, calmly and yet aggressively pressing the button for the elevator, jay trying to hide his dirty clothing by wrapping his coat around his body, hands stuffed in pockets as stephen crossed his arms against his chest, keeping his head low. beneath all that bird's nest of a mess which is known as stephen's hair, hosuh could clearly see evident bruises forming on the male's cheekbones, along with a small cut on his eyebrow. 

eventually the purple haired male must've noticed how long he must've been staring, for his violet eyes flickered over to land on his, making hosuh quickly avert his blue eyes away and onto the floor. 

"hm, am i that attractive?" stephen says, playful tone dancing in his voice as he sweeps strands of his hair over his forehead. 

"yes— i mean no, i mean not no, i— you just have a lot of injuries on your face!" hosuh blurts out, tone going higher by the second as he internally sweats bullets as he feels stephen's questioning stare lingering on him, small smile tugged on his lips. "well, nurse lee, why don't you attend to my wounds if you're so concerned?" 

"what makes you think i'm going to be the one cleaning your mess?" hosuh asks, raising an eyebrow as the blushing hue on his cheeks started to fade away, for now.

"what a shame, i guess i'll have to keep getting hurt for you, to make you feel bad and help me with my ouchies." stephen says, frowning into a pout that makes hosuh's eyes linger on the male's lips for a brief second, before rolling his eyes, trying to hide the evident smile on his own lips. "as long as you stay still." he says with a slightly lower voice as a warning. 

proudly and boldly, stephen puffs out his chest. "as long as you be my nurse." he says.

it makes hosuh realise how different stephen, jay, and daniel are, yet how similar they are at the same time. throughout the times he had spent the most with stephen and jay, he had definitely figured out their habits by observing perhaps a little too much for his liking. jay was more calm and collected, though he was very teasing and mischevious. it's almost as if the blonde is the type to do everything last minute, yet manages to ace every narrow situation with delicate ease. stephen on the other hand, was more reserved at first glance, probably too intimidating to approach, but the more you get to know him, the more soft and sweeter he becomes, and yet, he also is a playful little tease, just like jay. and god, his adorable dorky laugh. okay, maybe he's going a bit too off topic.

and daniel, who hosuh has yet to learn and observe more about, though could probably guess at first glance that the vibrant lime haired male was taking the role as the 'mother hen' constantly tugging on imaginary leashes hung around jay and stephen's neck. hosuh assumed daniel was probably the most responsible and hesitant one, as if having an extra pair of eyes on the back of his head to constantly make sure that his so called 'children' weren't trying to stab each other with kitchen scissors or anything, and honestly, hosuh applauds dan for that. if he were to take on the green haired male's position, he'd actually think he would die in the first hour.

but hosuh is yet to figure out why on earth he had stumbled paths upon the three, how coincidental that they all had the same similar goal and mission he did. he wonders how the three of them managed to meet each other, a tale yet to be told for another time, he thinks, as he enters the room of the condo, the same room he had crashed earlier that night. he watches fondly at how daniel immediately went to change his messy clothes, despite him being the least covered in blood and sweat. and jay, who exhaustingly collapsed onto the couch in defeat, burying his messy hair into one of the fluffy pillows, while stephen went inside one of the rooms, only to come back with a little first aid kit in his hands, violet eyes glinting softly at him. 

"you big baby." hosuh says, pursing his lips into a thin line as he gently takes the first aid kit box into his own hands, unlatching the hatch that looked like a small plus sign, opening its contents and digging out materials needed to clean stephen's wounds. 

"i don't mind as long as i'm your baby." stephen mumbles, too quiet for hosuh to hear, thankfully. 

"he's always been a big baby. he's the youngest in the group." jay says from the couch, finally lifting his face up from the couch. 

"how old are you anyway?" hosuh asks, raising an eyebrow, glancing at stephen who sheepishly rubs the back of his neck.

"5000 years old." stephen says bluntly and it makes hosuh stifle out a small chuckle. "i'm a vampire, run away before i suck your blood!" the purple haired male continues, baring his teeth, surprisingly sharp canines showing, as if trying to be intimidating, it didn't work on hosuh as stephen oddly reminded him of a little tiger cub.

"he's 22."

"jay for christ's sake could you not ruin my moment here." stephen says, exasperated, leaning against the kitchen table as hosuh begins to gently pour tiny amounts of salt water onto a small cotton pad, taking tiny steps in front of stephen, not missing the way the male's eyes brightened in delight, and hosuh's heart nearly melts at the sight. "could you bend down a bit or sit on a chair or something?" hosuh asks, as he was too short to reach stephen's face. he could tiptoe, but holding that position for nearly more than two minutes would practically make his legs come crashing down and betray him and would probably make him do something embarrassing, like falling against stephen or anything, which he definitely does not want to happen, or maybe he does. 

violet eyes stared down at him and hosuh raises an eyebrow in silent questioning as stephen practically eyes him from head to toe. "no." stephen says, crossing his arms against his chest in a defiant manner. "what are you gonna do now?" 

"you're really testing me, don't make me spray saltwater over your wounds, i know that's going to hurt a lot." hosuh threatens with rolled eyes, hands coming to gently cup stephen's surprisingly soft cheeks, yanking his face down so he was at his height, the sudden change in stephen's posture made it awkward, as he was practically 70% legs, his back bent in a very uncomfortable angle to be in. 

"stay." hosuh says with narrowed playful eyes as he carefully reaches for the wet cotton pad, gently dabbing it against the open wounds on stephen's face, humming softly to soothe stephen's distress as he winced, occassionally rubbing his thumb against the purple haired male's squishy cheeks, in order to calm him down, and apparently it worked, as hosuh noticed that stephen began to lean in towards his touch, not as jumpy as before, letting him do what he pleased as he finally finished bandaging and cleaning stephen's wounds. 

he turned away to keep the things sprawled out lying across the kitchen table back into the first aid kit, hearing soft mumbles of incoherent words from stephen's lips, making him raise his head up with questioning eyes. "did you say something?" he asked, slightly confused as stephen didn't meet his eyes. it was obvious that the taller male was hiding from something, or was it something too embarrassing to say? 

"he's asking for you to kiss his wounds." jay pipes up from the couch yet again, giving him useful information without having hosuh to ask as the blonde scrolls through his phone boredly, waiting for daniel to come out of the room so he could switch places with the green haired male to clean up as well. 

"you sure know stephen well." hosuh says, eyes softening as he glances back at stephen who still stubbornly refuses to look anywhere but at him, violet eyes trained on the marble floor as his cheeks began to heat up a flushing pink. 

"what can i say? i've known him for the longest. he always asks me to do this for him, and he'll get all sulky and pouty and mad if you don't do it. trust me, i speak from experience." jay explains and it makes hosuh raise an eyebrow at stephen who finally sheepishly flickers his eyes back at him, shrugging his shoulders in shame and defeat. "what? don't kisses make wounds heal faster or is that just a myth? has my entire life been a lie along?" he asks, raising his arms in exasperation. 

"i think they do, actually. so get your cute face over here." hosuh says, words easily slipping out of his lips, too easily for his liking as his blue eyes immediately widened as the aftermath hit him, wishing he could rewind time and duct tape his mouth, as violet eyes glimmered in amusement. 

breath was caught in his throat as stephen stuffed his hands in his pockets and leaned dangerously close to hosuh, and if it weren't for him instinctively flinching back as stephen neared him, he wouldn't be sure if their faces would be left untouched. "go ahead." stephen mumbles, softly smiling as he gently reaches his hands to gently grip hosuh's owns, bringing them closer to the purple haired male's face.

hosuh blinked owlishly at him. "really?" 

stephen nodded silently, granting silent permission and hesitantly, hosuh gently brushes a strand of vibrant purple out of the taller male's face with the back of his hands, blue eyes softly trailing the well defined features of stephen's face, gently bringing his face closer to him, planting a delicate kiss on one of the bandages underneath one of stephen's eyelids, where a small cut lay, and another, on his left cheek, and finally, his lips brushed against the warm skin of stephen as he left little love marks, marking stephen's once painful injuries, into a more softer and sweeter one, with hosuh shyly intertwining his hands with the taller male's ones, bangs of silver falling over his face as he gently nuzzled and pecked loving kisses onto stephen's bandaged knuckles. 

when he finally does look up, he doesn't miss the way stephen's dark night eyes practically brighten in happiness, face radiating with delight and warmth, lips pursing as he silently waits for something from hosuh and it makes said male raise an eyebrow questioningly before letting out a soft huffing laugh. 

"stephen, i'm not kissing your lips." 

the statement makes the purple haired male let out an outburst of red, face flushing into a blooming hue as he splutters out remarks and exclaims, raising his hands in defense. "i wasn't asking you to!" he says quickly in a loud voice, and in the corner of his eye, he makes out a figure of a particular blonde sitting on the couch with his palm against his chin, clearly watching the situation with great interest. 

"sure, sure." hosuh waves off dismissively, almost as if not believing him and stephen is about to continue denying the statement before the silver haired male quickly interrupts him. "go wash up now, and don't take any of the bandages off." 

with fists clenched tightly in embarrassment, stephen without a word quickly turns around on his heels, making a beeline towards the bathroom and slamming the door shut, sliding his frame against the closed door down to the floor where he lay in a heap of a blushing mess, gently reaching up a hand to feel against his cheek, the warmth of hosuh's lips that still lingered with the fragrant scent of vanilla combined, he looks down at the marble floor quite lost in wonder as he waits for his blushing mess of cheeks to die down. 

perhaps if his lips got bruised from taking hits, would hosuh kiss his lips then? 

hosuh was left alone again. after stephen's outburst of red that made him slam the bathroom door shut, daniel came back shortly after that, raising an eyebrow silently as he looks at hosuh and jay, probably hearing all the commotion from inside one of the rooms, though he's too tired to question it at this point, as he wishes hosuh a goodnight, before turning around and quickly padding towards into one of the rooms, and jay, who apologized yet again for making hosuh have to sleep on the couch underneath this night again, in which he quickly denied his apology, hurridely ushering jay to change as the stench of dry blood began to creep up his nose in an unpleasant way.

as he sat quietly on the couch now, with arms hooked underneath his legs that were curled up to place his chin on top of his shins, he was lost in deep thought. the sudden feeling of him being left alone made him feel uneasy, a queasy feeling twisting in the gut of his stomach as he tightly gripped the wine-blood stained sweater into his fists. why was he feeling like this? he was just fine a minute ago, he had made it out alive, nobody was that severely hurt, stephen, jay, him, and daniel were all okay. he managed to stand up for himself, protecting himself for the first time instead of running.

but why did he feel like the world was crashing down on him?

his sister. vivid memories flashed into his mind, painting a portrait of the recalled moment, ann's bright blue eyes that flashed in fear and distress like the same way they did 7 years ago. he had failed his mission, in bringing ann back to him. he wished her luck on finding her brother, hoping that he'd come home to her soon. 

strands of silver moonlight brushed against his face as if delicate fingers of the air were trying to comfort him.

his chest felt tight, as if it were to explode at any moment as the uncomforting silence began to suffocate him with his whirlpool of thoughts. his throat began to close up in a feeling he knew too well that meant he was going to shed a few tears tonight, if not, more than that, as he quickly grabbed one of the nearby fluffy pillows into his embrace, too unbothered to remember that he was hugging the clean soft pillow against his dirty tainted self. 

it was the only thing that felt like comfort to him at this point, as his hands tightly gripped the soft fabric, burying his head into the pillow, feeling as if he was the most pathetic thing in the world. and the worst feeling that made his heart begin to slowly tear apart was that he didn't know why he was feeling this way. he shouldn't be feeling this way, he thinks, constantly repeating it in his head in hopes to make him feel better, though it didn't as his mind began to eat away at his thoughts, betraying him and repeating the words 'bad, bad, bad' in his mind to the point where he didn't know he felt his face beginning to wet from tears that flowed freely from his eyes. 

he barely even registered the fact that warm gentle hands brushed against his head, and he was too ashamed to look up as the familiar scent of citrus lemons and sunflowers floated in the air. "hey, look at me." jay's familiar voice laced with concern makes his heart even shatter more, stubbornly burying his face into the pillow as if in an attempt to fuse with it. 

"hosuh, please." jay whispers, also stubbornly trying to pry hosuh's head away from the pillow, eventually succeeding as warm fingertips that dripped off like honey gently cupped hosuh's face up away from the pillow, and it's only until now that he feels like the smallest thing in the world, wanting to disappear from the face of the earth as jay stares down at him with soft eyes along with a feeling in his eyes that was too hard to read out. 

though jay said nothing, only bringing him into his embrace, making his blue eyes widened that was wet with crystal clears decorating the rim of his eyelashes as his hands stayed frozen mid-air as the blonde gently wrapped his arms around his frame, neck nuzzling in the crook of his neck and the familiar warm drowsy feeling buzzes to his fingertips again, the horrid and miserable headspace he was in earlier, seemed to have snapped into thin air as the two stayed in silence, dancing with each other's embrace and drowning in each other's scents, hosuh occassionaly reaching his hands up to play with the soft messy yet fluffy hair of jay who only tightens his grip around him.

"you wanna tell me what's wrong or should we wait until morning?" jay's muffled voice mumbles from hosuh's neck and immediately the leak of hosuh's faucet in his eyes began profusely leaking uncontrollably. "you don't have to tell me right now. we could wait, as long as you want, and as long as you're ready." jay continues, seemingly noticing the way hosuh's body began to shake. 

he didn't deserve jay.

"i don't know what you're upset about," the blonde says, finally tearing himsefl away from hosuh's embrace, only to cup his large hands around the silver haired male's delicate pale face that shone like moonlight in this night, strands of silver falling before being briefly pushed back as jay gently wipes away the falling tears with his thumb, soft eyes boring into the boy's baby blue ones. "but if you are blaming yourself, please don't. none of this your fault, especially if it's something you can't control. i didn't want to say it at first, but from the moment your silver hair captured my attention, i can't get the thought of you out of my head. and i'd hate it if the image of you with tears running down your face is the thought that flashes in my mind." 

"don't get me wrong, i love your face, your face is absolutly perfect, but the sight of you smiling is definitely much more eye-pleasing to look at rather than seeing you cry." jay mumbles. "your smile is as radiant as sunbeams, i love seeing you smile. please don't ever stop." the blonde finishes, face beginning to tint a shy fade of pink in embarrassment as he looks away. "sorry, i'm not good with words, but i hope you get the idea. you look much more better smiling, so please, can you smile for me?" 

the oddly sweet and poetic words recited from jay's lips make hosuh blink up at him in astonishment, tears of crystal briefly pausing as they gathered and collected on the tip of his eyelashes as he blinks them away, droplets falling down his face before his blue eyes softened, his hands coming up to rest upon jay's wrist that were still cupped around his cheeks as he lets out a tired tiny yet fond smile. 

"dumbass, i told him not to use my toothbrush and yet he does, god no wonder why my toothbrush now stinks." a familiar voice breaks through their short sweet embrace and with tear-filled eyes, hosuh's head snaps towards the sound of the direction, yet knowing too well who it belonged to, roughly rubbing his eyes to erase any evident traces of the track of tears running down his cheeks. 

"am i.. interrupting something?" stephen asks as he nears the couch, raising an eyebrow at jay who was sitting too close to hosuh, and he wondered what had happened in those 30 minutes of him using the bathroom to wash up, though with the clear sign of hosuh's usual bright blue eyes that lowered into a fading dim as he refused to meet his eye, he knew something was off as he squinted closely, paying more attention to hosuh, violet eyes finally widening as blue eyes met his, the boy's eyelids that began to puff up, nose tinting a light pink, it was easy to guess that he had been crying.

"wait wait, what's wrong?" stephen asks in a hushed and worried tone that makes hosuh's chest squeeze tight again, watching with tired eyes as the purple haired male makes way and plops himself onto the couch next to him, hands immediately finding its way by gently intertwining stephen's and hosuh's fingers together and his baby blue eyes wanded over towards their laced hands, small smile painted on his lips. 

"nothing's wrong." hosuh says, immediately cringing at the way his voice was all raspy and dry, as if he had just woken up from a 10 year long nap. 

"bullshit." stephen immediately interrupts, making hosuh's eyes flicker back to the taller male who stared at him with furrowed eyebrows. "you know you can tell us anything, we won't judge you." the purple haired male says, violet eyes briefly glancing towards jay who silently nods in return.

"thank you, but it's nothing really." hosuh mutters, running an empty hand through his messy silver hair. "just thinking about what happened earlier.. my sister." he adds with a low whisper, eyes beginning to betray him as his vision began to blur with the layers of stacked tears, brimming to the rim and all hosuh was trying to right now was to not blink, to not let the dam of overflowing tears break through. 

"you feel like it's your fault?" stephen finally says after a while of thinking in silence, and hosuh nods, finally not being able to contain the wave of tears as they suddenly became crashing down on him, the dam breaking through the tiny cracks as they flowed freely down his cheeks, his shoulders beginning to shake uncontrollably as he tried not to let any pathetic noises out from his lips, only small whimpers and hiccups that filled the air as stephen brings him forward into his embrace, head gently coming to rest upon his, letting the silver haired boy sob his heart out. 

"it's hard to believe that any of this is your fault to begin with, but even if it is," stephen says, not missing the way jay sitting a few inches away from him spares him a quick glare as a warning, in which he ignores as he continues. "even if you were to try to go back in time, to change what was once a mistake into something you wanted to happen, i believe time always finds a way, you know. time is a flowing river, even if you throw a rock at it for example, it'll still flow, same as time. and i have no idea if this makes sense or if anything i'm saying is making the situation any better, but out of all these coincidences and chances, you managed to stumble upon our paths that one night." 

hosuh had no idea what stephen meant, or what he was trying to say, if he were to be honest. but that last sentence resonated through his head as he waited in silence for the male to continue. "what i'm saying is," the male says, sighing. "if we all hadn't met back at merque, i didn't think that we would have come this far, as in, finally being able to track those dipshits in those ridiculous suits, and finally being able to hold you in my arms." he says quietly. "it's really such a weird coincidence, if you think about it. we all have been connected to each other without knowing it all along, we all have similar goals, and we've all lost something important to us, and we're in pain just as much as you." 

"but pain doesn't always last forever. you get hurt, you get up, dust yourself off, and heal. the cycle repeats, and there's nothing really you can do to change it. sure, sometimes you'll have bad days and good days, and you'll find the closest people around you disappearing like shadows in your darkest moments, but there are some people who'll be lights guiding you through the right way. if you'll let us, i want you to let us help you heal." stephen finishes, finally lifting his head off of hosuh's, said male doing the same as he raises his head up from stephen's now dampening chest, wet with his own tears.

"i haven't really told this to anyone, only to jay and daniel since i've been with them the longest, but as much as i'd hate to admit it, i used to be more soft and more easily-approaching than what am i now." stephen continues, cracking a small smile as he notices hosuh stifling out a choked laugh, as if not believing him. "i know, hard to believe, but.. i used to have an older sister." he says, eyes finally looking away from hosuh as his voice lowers into a tiny voice and in gentle reassurance, hosuh places a hand on top of their intertwined hands, heart slightly breaking at the way stephen's voice briefly wobbles as he says the word 'used to'.

"think i was 12 or something, i don't know, it's hard to remember. i have the memory span of a goldfish." he lightheartedly jokes, trying to lift the sour mood up. "but, yeah, we were running, i forgot why, or where my parents were, definitely didn't wonder where my dad was, that piece of shit who used to beat me and my sister every night when coming home after drinking, but all i remember is her screaming and yelling in that night, when these three huge men had cornered her in one of the dark alleyways." stephen sucks in a sharp breath, trying to act strong as the memory flashes in his mind before slowly fading away into blank white. "i was hiding somewhere, not close enough to save her, but not far enough to not hear how scared she felt." 

"i.. by the time those men were gone, i had crept out of my hiding spot and she—" stephen breaks off of his sentence, using his shoulder to cover his face as he bites the inside of his lip to stop it from wobbling and hosuh immediately cradles the fragile boy into his own embrace, gently entangling his fingers into stephen's smooth purple locks, soothing it down as said male buries his face against hosuh's chest, too unbothered to notice the bittersweet smell of wine tainted on the silver haired boy's sweater. 

"she was all bruised and beatened up, she was still alive, but barely. her clothes were ripped apart and i just— the sight makes my stomach still churn to this day." stephen continues in a mumbly voice as he rests his chin against hosuh's shoulder. "her hair was all messed up and her mouth bled black ink, i'm not even sure if it was blood, or if it was something else. but her hand came up to rest against my cheek, to rub against the patched up spot that well hid a very deep wound my so called dad had hit me earlier with an empty wine bottle or something." 

god, he really didn't know how much stephen had been through, hosuh thinks silently as his heart mourns quietly for the loss of stephen's sister. the boy was stronger than he looked, no wonder he was so precarious to his surroundings and so intimidating to approach at first glance, always on edge. 

"um, yeah.. her final gesture i guess as a goodbye? was to kiss my wounds, and now to this day i can't go by without sleeping peacefully at night without having someone kiss my wounds after treatement, i know, it sounds so childish—" 

hosuh abruptly cuts him off, hands quickly cupping stephen's cheeks to bring him back up to eyesight level, once violet mischevious eyes that softly bored into his as a fine coat of crystal tears shined in his eyes. "it's not childish at all." hosuh says with a soft voice. "i'm so sorry, i didn't know." 

a moment of mourning silence was shared between them as hosuh's eyes widened for a brief moment. "you gave me your sister's concealer?" he asks stephen who spares him a small smile as he nods in silence. "but why? you could've kept it with you, i know it's probably your prized possession as of now, you should keep it." 

"you're right, it is my prized possession, as of the past but as of now, you are." stephen say, making hosuh's mouth fall slightly wide open as he was unsure how to react. "after that inccident, i couldn't go home, hardly could even call it a home anymore." he snorts. "it took me a while to find home, to find somewhere warm and call it safe, you know, and right now, i think it's safe to say that i can finally do that." 

"you, me, daniel, and even blondie over here, we've all lost something important to us, someone we loved. it's not that we're trying to replace that empty hole inside our hearts with new people who we know will never be or will never be compared the same as the people we have lost, but we can find comfort in that, i guess you could say. we can help each other heal when we get hurt, be each other's light in the darkness. and i'm hoping you'll let us guide you through your darkest times." stephen says, gently lifting an empty hand up to curl his fingers, only his pinky finger sticking out, a gesture of making a promise hosuh is sure he'll keep and protect till the end of time.

"i'm hoping you'll let me guide you through your darkest times too." hosuh says softly, gently intertwining their pinkies together and sealing them together with a final press to their thumbs as the promise was made.

"you've.. lost someone too?" hosuh says, finally turning to jay who sits beside him as well, watching their whole interaction in sweet silence. 

"multiple." jay says quite easily as his tone barely unwavers. 

"it's kind of complicated to explain, and yet i've only told this to stephen and daniel as well, but i have an older brother, as well as my dad. i guess you could say i grew up in the dark side of the family, as my dad worked for the head of the mafia gang. i didn't get to live that happy innocent young childhood as i grew up with guns and my brother beside me. and because of that, i.. was better than my brother, you could say." he mutters the last sentence in a quiet tone, the unpleasant taste of how the word 'better' rolled of his tongue.

"in terms of better than my brother, i mean that i was more immune to moral senses, with the killing people and stuff without mercy, while my brother was more weaker and soft-hearted, even if he was the older one, i was the one protecting him and comforting him, and he did the same to me, in rare occassions." jay says, huffing out a small laugh as he recalls the bittersweet memory. 

"my dad wasn't too keen or leninent on my older brother, always giving him scoldings and comparing me with him, as if he were trying to start sibling rivalry between us, but that never broke through, since we were one with blood, we stuck together since birth, like hell he was going to separate us." the blonde lets in a shaky inhale, continuing his story. "but he had other plans. he made me separate my relatinoship with my brother.. handed me a gun, and told me to shoot my very own brother who i had shared blood with." 

hosuh's blue eyes widened as he lets out a small gasp, rage practically engulfing him as hatred began building up inside for jay's horrible father who had put him through such misery and pain he didn't know about before.

"of course, i denied. but i always two steps behind my dad. he knew what was going to happen, he had it all planned out. that one night, when my brother was assigned a simple mission with me to come along, to— i don't really remember, i guess, kill off someone who owed a huge amount of debt to my dad or something." jay says, sunset red eyes beginning to slowly split and morph into two separate different colors, a wave of strong emotions hitting him as his eyes lit a dim hue of yellow and red.

"specifically, i remembered this well, since my father was the one who told me this, but there were supposed to be only one target we were to get rid of, he didn't inform us that there were going to be backup, and the fact that me and my brother had to do this job all alone." the sentence forcibly grits out of jay's teeth as he tries relaxing himself, taking in a deep breath and unclenching his fist he didn't know he clenched before, not until he noticed white beginning to form on his knuckles. 

"four men literally swarmed us, but more specifically towards my brother while two held me down and they made me forecibly watch them shooting a bullet hole right through my brother's chest. and i.. i just saw red at that point, became a killing machine without any emotions. probably the last emotion i have ever felt so strongly was despair? sadness? what's worse is that my brother was still alive as i cradled him in my arms, and he made a final request to me as death began pulling him away from my fingers." the blonde's voice begins quietning and hosuh could only watch with blue eyes filled with sadness for jay and his lost brother. 

"he wrapped his fingers around mine and asked me to end his suffering for him, pointing my gun right at his temple, and in this moment of time i never understood how he could smile as he was dying right on the spot in front of me." jay huffs out a pained laugh, tired smile painting on his lips. "i don't think i've ever felt the same way after i had my brother's blood on my hands as i came back home alone at night, didn't greet my father anymore nor ate with him anymore, we grew apart, thank god." 

"i'm so sorry, i never knew." hosuh mumbles, reaching a small hand to gently place upon jay's slightly bigger one, heart aching as the blonde slowly shakes his head. "it's none of your fault, you don't have to keep saying sorry. what's done is done, and as much as i want to move on, i know i can't. and like stephen said earlier, we can't replace the people we've lost and loved with someone new, but we can find comfort in that." jay's morphed split multi-colored eyes finally flickered onto hosuh. "and i think i've finally found comfort in you and stephen." 

"wow, all of a sudden things got so depressing." stephen pipes up with a light joke, awkwardly laughing as he wipes the leftover tears away from his eyes. "group hug?" he shyly suggests, already opening his arms wide open as hosuh looks at him with soft eyes.

although stephen did admit to himself that he was never really a fan of hugs, especially from daniel or from strangers he had never seen as they gave him too much of a friendly greeting during meetings, as long as his arms got to be wrapped around jay or hosuh, he was fine with it, his violet eyes that were once dimmed with sorrow and despair slowly softened into a more warm and gooey color as they shone brightly underneath the lights of this night. gratefully, he pulls hosuh into his embrace yet again, jay following his lead as he stands up to sit next to stephen, arms wrapped around his own waist as the blonde rests his chin against his shoulder, while stephen rests his own head on top of hosuh's, not really minding that even after he had washed up, his shirt was probably going to reek of the bittersweet smell of wine, though it could make up for it, as the smell of familiar vanilla mixed within.

hosuh lets out a pleased content sigh, warmth bubbling to the tip of his fingertips, heart overflowing with love and adoration. perhaps stephen was right, he thinks. he could never replace the pain and heartache seven years ago as his family was ripped apart from him, but maybe he could find comfort in trying to find home once again, as he was cradled in the arms of stephen, whose chin was busy nestling itself within his messy silver strands, along with jay who hooks his own chin on stephen's shoulder, now sunset-red eyes warming into his as he spares hosuh a quick fond glance. 

underneath the misty blue of this dark night, the light shines differently as moonbeams flood through the open windows of the condo, illuminating the room and hosuh's hair in a different way, glowing with a different vibe as an angelic hue is painted over his figure. and with the way both stephen's and jay's eyes that were once so hard to read before, were so easy to read now, as they shared confessions with each other, shedding tears and love, as hosuh's blue eyes flickered over to the two who stares back at him, their eyes only flowing with loving warmth, and hosuh has never felt so safe and warm before.

maybe, just maybe, he thinks quietly to himself. home doesn't need to be a structural building with four walls and windows. perhaps, home could be a body, even two maybe, with calm beating heartbeats that soothed his troublesome thoughts, and pairs of eyes that shone underneath the moonlight, with smiles that made his own heart skip a beat, and with warm arms that welcomed him like an open gate to home.

and hosuh was the key.

｡ﾟ•┈୨ **!** **bonus !** ୧┈•ﾟ｡

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me? absolutely whipped for stephen being a whiny pouty clingy baby instead of the confident flirty badboy stereotype? more likely than you'd think,, ahahaha im so sorry if this chapter seems rushed or anything, i can't deal with me writing slowburn lol i just can't cause it frustrates the hell out of me (i prefer relationships that slowly just ease into each other, like you don't know how fast you're falling for your significant other, that kinda love) 
> 
> i feel like i've failed with writing the angst since my yt playlist recommendations are just recommending me soft songs like pls i can't,, but still i hope this has made your heart melt a teeny tiny bit :') (btw, what hosuh had just gone through is what i call a 'mood drop' where you can feel perfectly happy and fine one moment and suddenly your mood just plummets and you feel like the most worthless thing ever ahaha this may be a vent chapter—) but yay, finally an update!! though sadly this will probably be the last one as next week i'll be on vacation so i probably won't update this fic for around two weeks, i'm so sorry :(( 
> 
> also! before i go, please help me with a lil something: i have decided that i'm making (jayphen,, stosuh,, jaysuh,,) jaystuh?? into a poly relationship aaa ( o˘◡˘o) BUT BUT!! although i do know that this is my fic and i have control of what i write and what happens,, i'd still like to know if the readers want more jayphen content?? because my hand is practically ITCHING to write it,, though i know a lot of people prefer the other sjsjaklaskd (i'm asking this cause next chapter in the next two weeks is going to be a rewind in time about jayphen's first encounter with each other hoohoo 👀) ALSO— (i know im sorry i keep making the end notes way too long lol) would you be interested in mayhaps seeing,, the three slow dance with each other?? and hosuh,, possibly,, dressing really pretty,, and maybe,, in a dress,,
> 
> but with that said, this fic??? reached?? past 100 kudos's already?? and almost 1000 hits?? i cannot express how grateful i am and i can't stress this enough that i love you all so much—(get in my pockets)— thank you!! (have my bad drawing of soft jaysuh as a thank you gift, curse you ao3 for making inserting images so hard and the cropping as well,,) wishing you all an early happy new years, i hope to see you all soon in the year 2020!! ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭ ღೃ*


	8. please read

i've recieved the news when i was still in japan on vacation when stephen's video uploaded. and i rewatched it so. many. times, with tears streaming down my face on the bus. i truly cannot believe that this is happening, but nonetheless, i choose to respect his decision on quitting danplan. i just beg of you to not force stephen to say, to plead for him. just be happy for him please. and as for danplan.. i cannot express how truly disappointed i am at the fandom for unsubscribing from their channel, when they've only reached 2mil just recently. of course you're allowed to decide whether you want to continue supporting them or not, but please do remember.

danplan does not only consist of daniel or stephen. it includes hosuh, ann, and jay (who haven't admitted they're part of the crew yet but the fandom has treated them like they are). the thio, dan, hosuh, and stephen worked SO hard. for five years, to be able to reach 2mil on their channel, and suddenly it's just.. gone? hosuh spent hours probably animating on their first vids, stephen had to take so long to build and work his iconic funny character, and daniel who had to come up with the plot, the content, the story line for crying out loud.

and you're just bashing hate on daniel?  
  


sending him threats?

i'm not saying or taking sides that what daniel did was acceptable.  
  


but it isn't UNFORGIVEABLE.

please, give him a chance. hear his side of the story.

stephen's not the only one whose hurting. daniel is too, hosuh is too, everybody is too.

so please give everybody a chance to heal.

at this point i just don't know what to do. 

everythings falling apart when i thought the start of 2020 was going to be the year for me. but i'm not giving up.

sure it started out shitty, but i'm keeping my hopes up. for me and for other people, that we're gonna make it through this year.

stephen might not be apart of danplan as of now,

but that doesn't mean he's still not apart of our lives.

he's influenced so many people, gained so much love and supporters. i truly do hope he knows he's loved and cared for. and not that he's just some "employee". 

as for this fic,   
  


honestly, i don't know. 

at first i was so happy before hearing the news. i was so ready to get my ideas prepared and to write them and show them to the world. 

but i don't know anymore.

reading my favorite fics on here, looking at talented people creating fanart, and updating this story that has been one of my greatest memories so far.

but it just doesn't feel the same anymore.

do i want to keep writing this story? yes, of course i do. i had a whole plotline for this, i built so much ideas for characters, took so much time into writing and perfecting this.

but i don't know if i want to keep writing something that doesn't make me happy.

perhaps, i'll continue, or not, i don't know.

i'm sorry, i keep saying that word too much. but i just feel so lost at this point.

like i said, please give everybody a chance whose hurting, to heal. be a light on others to shine through their darkest times. 

it takes a while to heal, but with a little help and a little love, surely we all can hold hands and find a way throughout this dark cave.

and i truly hope you'll hold my hand and wait for me too. 


End file.
